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Authoritative Works of 
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Chinese Characteristics 

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FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



China and America 
To-day 

A Study of Conditions 
and Relations 

BY 
ARTHUR H. SMITH 

Thirty-fi've Years a Missionary of the American 
Board in China 




New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1907, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 






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All Those in Every Land, and 

Especially in America, Who Recognise the Actual 

AND THE Potential Greatness of the Chinese People, and 

THE Duty of the Most Enlightened Western 

Nations to Promote their Welfare, 

These Pages are Inscribed 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I. The Occident and the Orient ... 13 

11. The New America 19 

III. Old China 28 

IV. A Great Race 47 

y. The Brass Dish and the Iron Brush . 80 

VI. The New Far East and the New China 108 

VII. America's Advantages and Disadvan- 
tages in China . . . . . . .146 

VIII. America's Opportunities and Responsi- 
bilities IN China ...... 195 

Index 241 



DATES OF IMPORTANT EVENTS IN MODERN 
CHINESE HISTORY 

A. D. 

1275 Marco Polo Arrived at Court of Kublai Khan. 

15 16 Portuguese Arrived at Canton. 

1575 Spanish Arrived at Canton. 

1580 Father Roger and Matthew Ricci Entered Canton. 

1622 Dutch Arrived in China. 

1637 English Arrived at Canton. 

1660 Tea First Carried to England. 

1670 Beginning of Trade with the East India Company. 

1719 Beginning of Commerce with Russia. 

1784 First American Merchant Vessel Left New York for 
China. 

1793 Earl Macartney Received by the Emperor. 

1816 Lord Amherst's unsuccessful Embassy. 

1834 Opium Dispute Begins. 

1839 Beginning of War with Great Britain. 

1842 Aug. 29, Treaty of Peace Signed at Nanking. 

1844 July 3, First Treaty between the United States and 
China. 

1859 Nov. 24, Commercial Treaty with the United States. 

i860 Oct. 13, British and French Capture Peking. 

1864 T'ai P'ing Rebellion Crushed. 

1868 Burlingame Treaty Signed. 

1870 June 21, Tientsin Massacre. 

1873 June 29, Foreign Ministers Received in Audience by 
the Emperor, 

1875 Death of Emperor T'ung Chih and Accession of Pres- 
ent Emperor. 

1880 Nov. 17, New Treaty with the United States Signed. 

1887 Feb., Assumption of Government by the Emperor Kuang 

Hsii. 

1888 American Exclusion Acts against Chinese Passed. 

9 



10 IMPORTANT DATES 

A. D. 

1891 Anti-Foreign Riots in the Yang-tzu Valley. 

1894 War with Japan. 

1895 Treaty of Peace with Japan. 

1897 Nov., Seizure of Kiao Chou by Germany. 

1898 Mar,, Russia Leases Port Arthur of China. 

Reform Edicts by the Emperor. 

Counter Edicts by the Empress Dowager and De- 
thronement of the Emperor. 

1899 Rise of the Boxer Movement 

1900 June 17, Capture of Taku Forts by the Allies. 

June 20, Murder of the German Minister, Siege of the 

the Legations in Peking. 
Aug. 14, Relief of the Peking Legations by the Allies. 
Aug. IS, Flight of the Court to Si Ngan Fu. 
Sept. 9, Signing of the Peace Protocol. 
1902 Jan., Return of the Court to Peking. 

1904 Feb. 8, Beginning of the War between Japan and Russia. 

1905 Sept. 5, Treaty of Peace between Japan and Russia. 
Dec, Despatch of Two Imperial Commissions to America 

and Europe to Study Constitutional Govemment 



FOREWORD 

Among the many dramatic events at the close of 
the nineteenth and the opening of the twentieth 
century, whether we consider the number of the 
human beings affected or the magnitude and variety 
of the interests involved, none are of greater impor- 
tance than the changes m the Far East. 

The usual attitude of Americans toward world- 
phenomena of this sort has been that of more or less 
intelligent indifference, regarding them — in the 
phrase of a British writer of half-a-century ago — as 
" ten- thousand miles offy," and therefore of no 
moment to us. 

By the events of the last decade this way of think- 
ing has been shown to be not merely unphilosoph- 
ical, but irrational. Geographically, politically, com- 
mercially, and morally, the countries and the peoples 
of the earth are more and more felt to be inter- 
related by what Cicero called " a common bond," not 
in theory only, but in solid and indisputable fact. 
The number by whom this old truth, newly appre- 
ciated, is distinctly apprehended is, however, not 
large. Those who are willing to take trouble and 
to make sacrifices in order to compel others to ap- 
prehend it are even fewer; yet nothing is more cer- 

II 



12 FOREWORD 

tain than that the welfare of the Commonwealth 
depends, as it always has depended, upon the insight 
and the outlook of the few. The following chapters, 
prepared in deference to the request of many friends, 
contain little which has not in some form been said 
by others; but timely truths nowhere require more 
varied iteration than in busy America, where there is 
an unconscious consciousness of a destiny for which 
there is but slight provision, and of which there is as 
yet a very inadequate comprehension. 

All that is intended in these pages is merely an out- 
line sketch, in charcoal, of the general relations be- 
tween America and China. 

The Author. 

Shanghai, China. 



THE OCCIDENT AND THE ORIENT 

The author of one of the most beautiful of Ori- 
ental poems assumes the interval between the East 
and the West as a standard of immeasurable dis- 
tance. The observant traveller v^ho crosses from 
Europe to the Syrian shore of the Mediterranean Sea 
recognises at once that he is now in another world. 
It is not mere differences of language or of race, for 
those are found everywhere ; but there is a pervasive 
barrier, felt, but unseen, which divides, and for aught 
that we can see always will divide, the Occident from 
the Orient. All this and much more is condensed 
into the five letters, which, to our thought, represent 
the greatest of all the continents — Asia. It is the 
land of origins. The human race must have come 
from somewhere, and whether we locate that some- 
where in some valley to the north, or upon some 
plain to the south, we cannot persuade ourselves that 
our most distant ancestors were not Asiatics. 

It is a realm of antiquities, the might and in- 
exhaustible ruins of which have as yet been only 
superficially explored, of magnitude in space, of in- 
definite duration in time. It is the land in which all 
the religions of mankind have originated, and from 
which by widely different processes they have been 

13 



14 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

spread over the earth. It is the land where fatalism 
reigns, where the sins committed in one state of 
existence are slowly and toilfully expiated by succes- 
sive reincarnations during successive kalpas, or 
myriad-year periods. In our cold Western world 
we hold and we teach a doctrine of logical contra- 
dictions. A thing exists or it does not exist — one or 
the other, certainly not both at once ; or in the formal 
statement of the people that talk about " logic/' " A 
and not-A divide the universe." There is no, and 
there can be no, middle ground. 

All this is in Asia sublimated nonsense. Every 
Chinese " believes " in three mutually contradictory 
religions at one and the same time, and with no 
sense of logical (or illogical) inconvenience. " A 
Hindoo will state with perfect honesty that Chris- 
tianity is true, that Mohammedanism is true, and 
that his own special variety of Brahminism is true, 
and that he beheves them all implicitly." " A 
Hindoo astronomer who predicts eclipses ten years 
ahead without a blunder, believes all the while, and 
sincerely believes, that the eclipse is caused by some 
supernatural dog swallowing the moon, and will beat 
a drum to make the dog give up his prize." A 
similar phenomenon is witnessed in China, where, 
in accordance with orders published in " The Peking 
Gazette," the crew of a foreign-built man-of-war, 
armed with Krupp guns, turn out with drums, iron- 
pans, and any implement which will make a din, to 
*' save the moon." At some future, and let us hope 



THE OCCIDENT AND THE ORIENT 15 

not too distant, time, there may arise a philosophical 
observer able to combine into one harmonious whole 
the race-traits which in a lesser or in a greater degree 
characterise the Turk and the Arab, the Persian and 
the polyglot inhabitants of the Indian peninsula, the 
Siamese, the Japanese, the Korean, the Chinese, and 
the Tartar. When that happy day arrives, we shall 
be able to co-ordinate those isolated bones, of which 
we are now in but partial possession, into a complete 
skeleton which shall be styled ^' Asiatic Character- 
istics." The disregard of time, of accuracy, of what 
we mean by comfort, indifference to suffering in 
others, a self-seclusion which makes it forever im- 
possible for the Occidental to comprehend the real 
inner thought of the Oriental, the passion for the 
theatrical and for the spectacular (with a general 
flavour of the " Arabian Nights "), the all-pervading 
doctrine of family, clan, corporate responsibility, the 
definite merging (or rather submerging) of the in- 
dividual in the mass — ^all these will be seen to be 
only variant manifestations of a common heredity, 
education, environment. " Oriental," in the phrase- 
ology of Dr. Sidney L. Gulick, " signifies that type 
of civilisation which does not recognise the value or 
the rights of the individual person as such. It 
represents autocratic absolutism in government; it 
emphasises the rights of the superior and the duties 
of the inferior; it ranks men as inherently superior 
to women. It has no place for popular education or 
iox representative government, and it esteems mill- 



1 6 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

tary virtue as the highest type known. In other 
words, in Oriental civiHsation the community is 
supreme, the individual of no value whatever in 
himself." The unchanged and the unchanging East 
is best typified by the Arabs of the desert, of whom 
Mr. Meredith Townsend, in his illuminating essays 
on " Asia and Europe," has something to say, and 
from whom we may quote a few paragraphs. 

" There is no puzzle in the world, either to the 
ethnologist or the psychologist, quite equal to the 
Arab, whether he dwells in a tent, half-nomad, half- 
robber, or abides in the city of Nejd or South 
Arabia, the oldest, most tranquil and proudest of 
republicans. Why is he, of all men in the world, 
the one who changes so little, that the person who, 
of all mankind, most resembles Sheikh Abraham in 
ways and habits and bearing, and, as the best ob- 
servers say, in habit of thought, is his collateral kins- 
man, ninety generations removed, a sheikh of Syria 
or Nejd? What induces the Arab to seclude him- 
self in a dreary peninsula, in poverty such as no 
European conceives, and there live a life of remote 
antiquity; a life without object, or hope, or fear; a 
life so persistent that, a thousand years hence, if 
Europe does not conquer him, the Arab will be as 
to-day? ... No one who knows the Arab doubts 
his enterprise, and yet he lives on unchanged in the 
Syrian desert, or in his vast, secluded peninsula — 
Arabia is as large as India, or Europe west of the 
Vistula — seeking no advance, complaining of no 



THE OCCIDENT AND THE ORIENT 17 

suffering, living his life, such as it is, straight on, 
and accepting death as a destiny neither to be sought 
nor to be feared and fled from. As it was, is now, 
and ever shall be, world without end — that is his 
conception of human life. Time is nothing to the 
Arab; progress has no attraction for his mind; 
wealth, though when abroad he seeks it zealously, 
has no charm to tempt him thither. Poverty is noth- 
ing to him, for the man who is contented with his 
skin can never be poor. . . . They despise industry, 
put wealth by as meaningless, keep the tradition of 
the past as a possession, and without decay as with- 
out progress, live on forever, as they were in ages of 
which history tells us nothing. . . . Imagine a clan 
which prefers sand to mould, poverty to labour, 
solitary reflection to the busy hubbub of the mart, 
which will not earn enough to clothe itself, never in- 
vented so much as a lucifer match, and would con- 
sider newspaper-reading a disgraceful waste of time. 
Is it not horrible that such a race should be? — 
more horrible, that it should survive all others? — 
most horrible of all, fiiat it should produce, among 
other trifles, the Psalms and the Gospels, the Koran, 
and the epic of Antar ? " 

From the Occidental point of view, Immobility, 
Incomprehensibility, and general Irrationality — 
these too frequently compose the little that we think 
we know of the Orient. But as there is a sense in 
which the Occident is a whole, so likewise is the 
Orient. ,We are to-day confronted with the indis- 



1 8 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

putable fact that parts of the Orient are undergoing 
greater changes, and, even as we reckon progress, 
are making more progress, than any other part of 
the world. To call the reader's attention to some 
of the concomitants of these new conditions is the 
purpose of the ensuing chapters. 



II 

THE NEW AMERICA 

There is a deep significance in those maps which 
are so drawn as to show the gradual, intermittent, 
but steady process by which the territory of the 
United States came to be increased. If ever an 
American statesman was committed against extra- 
constitutional acts, that man was Thomas Jefferson. 
The Constitution made no provision for the purchase 
of alien territory, therefore, according to the strict- 
constructionist Democrats of that day, no such pur- 
chase could constitutionally be made. 

On the other hand, the right to navigate freely the 
Mississippi river was of vital importance to all set- 
tlers in the valley of that great artery and its trib- 
utaries, a right for which, if necessary, they would 
have been prepared to fight. At a " psychologic 
moment," " Napoleon seized the opportunity to do 
England a bad turn by increasing the power of her 
revolted colonies. Whatever the actual circum- 
stances, however, it is a notable fact that the Fed- 
eral Government without hesitation shouldered the 
responsibility of this huge acquisition of territory, 
with its tiny population of 50,000 whites, and the 
same number of black and colored people, although 
there was considerable opposition in the Northern 
States." 

19 



20 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

However great was the gratification felt at the 
outcome, no one living an hundred years ago could 
possibly have entertained any adequate conception 
of the ultimate importance of this event, the cen- 
tennial anniversary of which was celebrated by a 
great industrial and commercial Exposition. 

The history of Florida, the next acquisition, was 
remarkable, for it had been colonised by Spain, and 
in 1763 was ceded to Great Britain in return for 
Cuba and the Philippine Islands. Twenty years 
later, Great Britain restored Florida to Spain, most 
of the English leaving the country, and until 18 19 
it remained a Spanish colony. It was then pur- 
chased by the United States, to be used seventy-nine 
years afterwards as the base from which those mil- 
itary and naval operations were conducted which in 
a brief period drove the Spaniard out of that New 
World which he helped to discover, and where for 
four centuries he had misused his power. 

Our unwarranted aggression upon helpless Mex- 
ico, with the ensuing treaties, carried our boun- 
daries from the Rio Grande to the Columbia, and 
by the settlement of the long-standing dispute with 
Great Britain the Canadian frontier was permanently 
adjusted. 

The next step in expansion, less than two decades 
later, was to many Americans both a surprise and 
a puzzle. It was apparently taken through the skill 
and persistence of two men, Charles Sumner and' 
WilHam H. Seward, the latter one of the most 



THE NEW AMERICA 21 

prescient of statesmen that America has ever pro- 
duced. The vast territory of Alaska became ours 
because Russia, for reasons not difficult to surmise, 
was anxious to sell and we were willing to buy. 
The transcendent importance of the transfer only 
became obvious to every one when during the Span- 
ish war the United States took over Spanish rights 
in the Philippine Islands, and the island of Guam, 
and annexed the Hawaiian group. 

" When these circumstances are taken into consid- 
eration,'' remarks Mr. Colquhoun, " it becomes the 
more remarkable that from the first the United 
States has never hesitated on her path of expansion. 
At the same time, the policy was not commended 
by any of her great statesmen." And again: " One 
cannot fail to pause and review the circumstances in 
which that unparalleled development took place, and 
one is immediately struck by the steady continuity 
of purpose which seems half-unconsciously to have 
dominated the people and their rulers. In pros- 
perity and adversity, in defence of slavery and in 
spite of it, by the Federalists and by the Democrats, 
the work went steadily on. . . . In short, the 
career of the United States has been from the first 
one of masterful, irresistible expansion, not for lack 
of space or opportunity at home, but because of 
sheer force, initiative and nervous energy — charac- 
teristics which are peculiarly strong in the race which 
the North American continent has developed from 
many stocks." 



22 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY, 

Nothing, indeed, in the early history of the coun- 
try is more remarkable than the variety of strains 
blended into a new whole, English, Spanish, French, 
Dutch, Swedish. Though it required four centu- 
ries to eliminate the Spaniard, it was accomplished 
at last. The dislodgment of the French was even 
more significant, for our American wars between 
French and English were but isolated moves in a 
wide and complicated game extending around the 
globe, from the continental peninsula of India to 
the Heights of Abraham on the St. Lawrence. As 
a result of these conflicts some brass plates buried 
at the junction of important rivers (many of them 
discovered by Frenchmen) certifying that all lands 
drained by these streams were the property of His 
Serene Highness, Louis IV., a few proper names of 
Gallic origin in North America and the little settle- 
ment of Pondicherri on the Bay of Bengal, were 
practically all that remained to register the evapora- 
tion of what was intended to become a mighty 
French world-empire. 

As by the war between the States America may 
be said to have gradually come to a real self-con- 
sciousness, so by the Spanish war we have come at 
last to a world-consciousness. In each case, as in 
every great conflict, the results were far wider than 
could at the outset have been foreseen by the wis- 
est. Nine fateful years have passed since the Span- 
ish war, and for good or for ill, to the great disquiet 
of some of her children as well as to that of some 



THE NEW AMERICA 23 

of her neighbours, America is an actual as distin- 
guished from a potential world-power, with a very 
imperfect apprehension of what the new relations 
imply and of what they may involve. The Monroe 
Doctrine admits of many interpretations, to none 
of which has the world at large given its assent ; but 
whether it be regarded as a warning to others not 
to interfere upon the Western Continent, or as a 
conditional promise that America will undertake to 
render such interference unnecessary, the responsi- 
bility is serious. 

The Panama Canal brings us into new relations 
with the Caribbean Sea, some of the ports of which 
in the control of other nations might in the case 
of war, as Capt. Mahan reminds us, become of vast 
strategic importance. The completion of this great 
waterway will make America a first-class Pacific 
Power. 

" As far back as 1869 money was voted for estab- 
lishing a naval station and harbour on Midway 
Island, and though the project was abandoned the 
island was retained." The Samoan harbour of 
Pango Pango, one of the finest in the Pacific, al- 
though not actively occupied until after the Spanish 
war, was ceded to the United States in 1872, and 
may become of great importance. 

Most instructive is the history of our relations 
with the Hawaiian Islands. More than sixty years 
ago, Daniel Webster, then Secretary of State, de- 
clared that no other power would be suffered to hold 



24 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

this group, which, on the other hand, the United 
States did not want and would not take. Through 
their Christianisation by American missionaries 
their ties with that country were strong, and as 
soon as the sugar and other industries were devel- 
oped they became commercially and economically 
dependent upon America. The spectacular monar- 
chy ran its course, followed by a short-lived repub- 
lic ; but it had long been evident that formal annex- 
ation by the United States was only a question of 
development. 

These islands are important as a strategic base 
and as a unique centre of influence in the broad 
Pacific. In one of his luminous magazine articles, 
published five years before the Spanish war, Capt. 
Mahan wrote : " Too much stress cannot be laid 
upon the immense disadvantage to us of any mari- 
time enemy having a coaling station well within 
2,500 miles of every point on our coast line from 
Puget Sound to Mexico. Were there many others 
available we might find it difiicult to exclude from 
all. There is, however, but the one. Shut out 
from the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands as a coal- 
base, an enemy is thrown back for supplies of fuel 
to distances of 3,500 or 4,000 miles — or between 
7,000 and 8,000 going and coming — ^an impediment 
to sustained maritime operations well-nigh prohib- 
itive. It is rarely that so important a factor in the 
attack or defence of a coast-line — of a sea frontier — 
is c€tncentrated in a single position, and the circum- 



THE NEW AMERICA 25 

stance renders it doubly imperative upon us to secure 
it if we righteously can." What influence these wise 
words exerted it may not be easy to say, but it is 
certain that when the little Hawaiian republic 
knocked for admission, the sober sense of the Amer- 
ican people recognised that to grant it was at once a 
duty and a privilege, the advantages of which were 
reciprocal. The Hawaiian Islands are not only the 
Key of the Pacific, but the Cross-roads of the Pacific 
as well. 

As Dr. Josiah Strong observes, they are " mid- 
way between Unalaska and the Society Islands, mid- 
way between Sitka and Samoa, midway between 
Port Townsend and the Fiji Islands, midway be- 
tween San Francisco and the Carolines, midway be- 
tween the Panama Canal and Hongkong, and on 
the direct route from South American ports to Ja- 
pan." The following table of distances is only 
approximately correct, since different charts are 
marked with different figures, but it exhibits the 
unique situation of Honolulu: 

MILES 

Honolulu to San Francisco 2,100 

Honolulu to San Diego 2,260 

Honolulu to Portland, Oregon 2,460 

Honolulu to Sitka 2,395 

Honolulu to Unalaska 2,018 

Honolulu to Vancouver 2,330 

Honolulu to Acapulco 3,3io 

Honolulu to Nicaragua 4,210 

Honolulu to Callao 5,240 

Honolulu to Valparaiso 5,9i6 

Honolulu to Auckland 3,850 



26 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

MILES 

Honolulu to Sydney. , 4,480 

Honolulu to Yokohama. , 3,400 

Honolulu to Hongkong 4,893 

Honolulu to Manila ,..,,, 4,700 

Honolulu to Guam. . . , , , , , - , 3>500 

Honolulu to Samoa 2,290 

Honolulu to Tahiti , 2,380 

Honolulu to Fiji Islands 2,735 

With the opening of th? Panama Canal the posi- 
tion of Honolulu in the track of the world's com- 
merce will be seen to be of decisive importance, 
" because it will lie in the path of an increasing file 
of vessels moving from Panama to China, Japan, or 
Asiatic Russia." Dr. Strong quotes the Hon. L. A. 
Thurston as follows : " In the whole Pacific Ocean, 
from the equator on the south to Alaska on the 
north, from the coast of China and Japan on the 
west to the American continent on the east, there is 
but one spot where a ton of coal, a pound of bread, 
or a gallon of water can be obtained by a passing 
vessel, and that spot is Hawaii." By the acquisition 
of the Philippine Islands the United States is 
brought within two days' easy steaming of China. 
Manila is but a little more than 600 miles from 
Hongkong, which is only eighty miles from Can- 
ton — perhaps the largest aggregation of population 
in the Chinese empire. America thus becomes de 
facto an Asiatic power. The completion of an all- 
American cable across the Pacific brings Washing- 
ton within a few minutes of Manila, while branch 
lines to China and Japan complete the circuit. 



THE NEW AMERICA 2^ 

The tropical archipelago which now constitutes 
the American outpost at the door of the Far East 
may be, in an important sense, a test of our national 
capacity, and it may easily become — what some al- 
ready consider it — a Pandora box of evils. In what 
spirit and with what success we are to administer 
our newly-acquired island possessions, and in what 
manner we are to deport ourselves in presence of the 
Oriental peoples with whom we are now brought into 
contact, are vital questions for the New America. 



Ill 

OLD CHINA 

An inherent difficulty in the forming of any ade- 
quate conception of China by a Westerner is that he 
is almost certain to regard it as a mysterious entity 
which, Minerva-like, sprang into being at one place 
and at one time. The truth is, however, that what- 
ever may have been their origin, the Chinese are 
no exception to the universal law of human evolu- 
tion. Their history differs from that of other peo- 
ples with which Occidentals are familiar in the 
co-operation of five factors nowhere else to be found 
in combination: namely, comparative isolation; ex- 
tended duration ; extremely gradual progression ; su- 
periority to environment, and the overwhelming 
influence of resident forces as compared with the 
relatively unimportant effect of those from without. 

The Chinese are at once the oldest, the most nu- 
merous, and the most homogeneous people exist- 
ing upon the earth. Their history begins with a 
mythical period not unlike those of Greece and 
Rome, passing which we come to what Occidentals 
term the legendary period, whose opening is almost 
thirty centuries b. c. This is the age of the Five 
Rulers, who were "much more like great tribal 



OLD CHINA 29 

chieftains than kings in the true sense of the word. 
Each of these five is said to have ruled for a long 
period of time and to have done much for the civil- 
isation of the people." The first of these was Fu 
Hsi, who is reputed to have lived not later than b. c. 
2852, and perhaps several centuries earlier. He es- 
tablished marriage, introduced by means of certain 
characters a notation of time, regulated the seasons, 
invented the six styles of writing, and instructed the 
people in the arts of hunting, fishing, and pasturing. 
" Much is attributed to him which was undoubtedly 
of later origin, as, for instance, the highly compli- 
cated system of Chinese written characters. Prob- 
ably at this date the Chinese possessed nothing 
except rude hieroglyphics, and the method of writ- 
ing used at the present time is the product of the 
slow development of ages." ^ 

A successor of Fu Hsi was Shen Nung (b. c. 
2737), who taught the people the art of agriculture, 
and the use of herbs as a medicine. A later ruler 
is supposed to have invented the 60 year cycles, 
while his wife taught the rearing of silk worms and 
the making of silk clothing. 

Two famous members of this glorious quintette 
(although there were nine in all) were Yao (b. c. 
2356) and Shun (b. c. 2286), who have been ideal- 
ised as such perfect rulers that, as any coolie may 

1 The foregoing quotations, and some which follow, are from 
the best epitome of Chinese history, by Rev. F. L. Hawks 
Pott, D.D., President of St. John's College, Shanghai, "A 
Sketch of Chinese History." 1903. 



go CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY. 

tell you, in their time doors were not shut at night, 
nor lost articles picked up by any save the real 
owner. 

One of the most striking features of the intellec- 
tual civilisation of China is the universal habit of 
turning a considerable part of the national literature 
out of doors before every New Year, at which time 
antithetical couplets, composed with great literary 
skill, are pasted on the posts of houses or gates, 
window frames, and the like, there to remain 
throughout the year until replaced by fresh ones. 
References to the Classics, with poetic and historic 
allusions, abound. One of the couplets everywhere 
to be met with tersely glorifies the two worthies just 
named, together with the great Yii, who founded 
(2205 B. c.) the Hsia dynasty, and Wen Wang, a 
famous Duke, whose period was about 1 140 b. c. 

"'The Day of Yao; The Time of Shun; 
The Rule of Yii; The Style of Wen." 

To no people in the world have past ages and dead 
men ever been more of a " live issue " than to the 
Chinese, without a perception of which fact it is im- 
possible to comprehend them or their history. 

Like all other countries, China had inhabitants 
who arrived long before the " first settlers," and with 
them the Chinese waged warfare, gradually driving 
them back, but without exterminating them. Many 
of these tribes whom the Chinese have not been able 



OLD CHINA 31 

to subdue are still to be found in the mountainous 
parts of southern China. When the rude maps of 
the empire at the different stages of its slow growth 
are examined, its historic evolution during the last 
3,000 years becomes, by a similar representation, as 
clear as that of the United States since the adoption 
of the Constitution. The first territory occupied 
by the Chinese was in the northwest, along the Yel- 
low River, and formed but a fraction of what is now 
China proper. By an expansion as normal as that 
in America, although so deliberate, the Empire has 
been pushed onward and outward until at certain 
periods it has been coextensive with the greater part 
of the continent of Asia, stretching from India on 
the one hand to Persia on the other. The earliest 
rulers were Patriarchs, developed by their struggles 
with their neighbours into Military Chieftains. 

From a Western point of view, the history of 
China is divided into two well-marked periods, of 
which the first, the Legendary, began about 2500 
years b. c, extending to the Ch'in dynasty (b. c. 
221-209). Among the different feudal States into 
which China was then divided, that of Ch'in was sit- 
uated on the western frontier, where its rulers might 
naturally be expected to become adepts in warfare, 
as compared with the more peaceful States remote 
from the stormy borders. It is from the name of 
this division of the Empire that the word China is 
supposed to have had its origin, a word, it should 
be observed, which the Chinese have never employed, 



32 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

and which they are now introducing from the West 
through Japan, in the form of Chih-na. 

One of the Ch'in rulers, who, by the way, entered 
upon his labours at the early age of thirteen, recog- 
nising the weakness of the divided state of China, 
determined to unite it. After bringing all the States 
into submission he organised the country into prov- 
inces, over which officers were appointed, responsible 
to himself, a system which has practically been fol- 
lowed down to the present time. To guard against 
the ever-threatening Tartars, this Emperor built 
(and in part repaired) the " Great Wall," by far 
the most impressive of the tangible memorials of 
China's past, a gigantic undertaking, usually reck- 
oned at fifteen hundred miles in length. It was 
completed (b. c. 204) in ten years' time, " at a vast 
expense of men and material, and not until the 
family of the builder had been destroyed." 

This " statesman of puissant energy and strongly 
marked individuality," who has been called the Na- 
poleon of China, was the real founder of the Em- 
pire as we know it. He took the ambitious name 
of The First Emperor, Ch'in Shih Huang, that his- 
tory might be begun from him ; and to facilitate this 
end, as well as to dim the memory of the past which 
he was resolved to abandon, he despotically ordered 
the destruction of nearly the whole of the existing 
literature. The scholars of the time naturally re- 
sented and criticised this wholesale vandalism, and 
offered a keen and a persistent opposition. Upon 



OLD CHINA 33 

this he ordered 460 of them to be buried alive " for 
the encouragement of the others " I The survivors 
concealed as many as possible of the priceless 
treasures of antiquity, and from the tablets of their 
memories — " wax to receive but marble to retain " 
— they were subsequently able to reproduce the 
greater part. China is perhaps the only country in 
which so overwhelming a calamity could have been 
followed by effects so relatively slight. 

This period of Chinese history is from every 
point of view of capital importance. It contains the 
only revolution in the long experience of the Chi- 
nese race, although they have passed through re- 
bellions literally innumerable. Ch'in Shih Huang 
was a reformer who appeared at a crisis. But in 
order to accomplish his nationalistic and egoistic pur- 
pose he was ready to make an abrupt and a final 
break with the past. 

But a fundamental characteristic of Chinese civil- 
isation is a refusal to break with the past: continu- 
ity is its life. The Chinese Muse of History is as 
inexorable as Fate — it is, indeed, but another name 
for Fate, and by that Muse and in that history 
Ch'in Shih Huang, the unifier of China and one of 
its ablest spirits, is adjudged a monster of wicked- 
ness and a warning to an hundred generations. The 
dynasty of Ch'in lasted but forty-nine years, but some 
of its effects were permanent. The Empire was put 
in condition to present a determined front to the in- 
cursions of the barbarous tribes to the north. 



34 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

The Han, which soon followed, is considered the 
first national dynasty. The former, or Western 
Han, lasted 231 years, and the later, or Eastern 
han, lasted 196 years longer. " The wild tribes 
disturbing the peace of the Empire at this time were 
probably of the same stock as the Huns and Turks, 
who afterwards made inroads into Europe, the Huns 
becoming the great scourge of Europe under the 
leadership of Attila (a. d. 445)." The warfare of 
China with the Tartars of the north, under widely 
varying conditions, the details of which are irrele- 
vant to our purpose, went on unintermittently from 
the beginning of the Han dynasty (b. c. 206) for 
more than fourteen hundred years, until in 1644 the 
present dynasty of Manchu Tartars seized the throne 
which they have ever since held. An interesting 
and an instructive historic parallel might be drawn 
between the barbarian inundation of Rome, and the 
invasion of China by her barbarian enemies, with 
the advantage distinctly in favour of China. 

It was said that Greece, being conquered, con- 
quered her conquerors, although in the process she 
lost her identity. Of China it may even more truly 
be affirmed that being constantly overrun, large 
parts of her territory being lost, and twice con* 
quered by alien tribes, she not only conquered her 
conquerors, but compelled them to give up their own 
identity and fuse themselves with China. In the 
light of what has been said, it is to be hoped that 
a partial table of Chinese dynasties may suggest — 



OLD CHINA 35 

for it can do no more — ^to the discerning reader 
something of the greatness of a people who have 
occupied their territory continuously for more than 
three millenniums, and perhaps for four, or even 
longer. Omitting altogether the mythical and leg- 
endary period, we will begin with the Chou dynasty, 
the epoch of China's oldest literature and the period 
of her greatest sages. dura- 

date TION RULERS 

The Chou Dynasty . B. C. 1122-255 867 34 

The Ch'in Dynasty . " 255-206 49 5 

The Han Dynasty (Former, 

or Western Han) . " 206-A.D. 25 231 14 

The Han Dynasty (Later, or 

Eastern Han) . . A. D. 25-221 196 12 
The "Three Kingdoms" " 221-265 44 n 

The Western Chin Dynasty " 265-317 52 4 
The Eastern Chin Dynasty " 317-420 103 11 
The Liu Sung Dynasty " 420-479 59 9 

The Ch'i Dynasty . . " 479-502 23 7 

The Liang Dynasty . " 502-557 55 6 

The Ch'en Dynasty . " 557-5^9 32 5 

(Five Northern Dynasties, 386-589, 31 Rulers) 
The Sui Dynasty . . " 589-618 29 4 

The T'ang Dynasty . " 618-907 289 22 

The " Five Dynasties," Later 
Liang, Later T'ang, Later 
Chin, Later Han, and 

Later Chou, . . " 907-960 53 13 

The Sung Dynasty . " 960-1127 167 9 

The Southern Sung Dynasty " 1 127-1280 153 9 
The Yuan Dynasty (Mon- 
gol) .... " 1280-1368 88 9 
The Ming Dynasty . " 1368-1644 276 17 
The Ch'ing Dynasty (Man- 
chu) .... " 1644- 9 



36 CfflNA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

It must not be supposed that the consolidation of 
the Empire, first achieved by Ch'in Shih Huang, 
was a permanent feature. On the contrary, it was 
only a precedent. Disunity was the ruin of Greece, 
as of many other lands, and it has always been the 
curse of China. Sometimes a dozen different con- 
testants were struggling to establish each his little 
kingdom, and often all fell together before an in- 
vader whom, if they had been united, they might 
have opposed with success. In the long and impos- 
ing series a few dynasties and a few monarchs stand 
out with peculiar prominence. 

The seven dynasties which in themselves and in 
their relations are most interesting to Occidentals 
are perhaps the Chou, the Han, the T'ang, the Sung, 
the Yuan, the Ming, and the present Ch'ing dy- 
nasty. Of the Chou a few words may be said in 
a following chapter, in connection with its great 
Sages and the great literature which then appeared. 

The Han is noted for the reversal of Ch'in 
Shih Huang's policy of destroying the records of 
the past, in the careful search for such as remained, 
and the encouragement of scholarship. It is to be 
remembered that the so-called " books " of the ear- 
liest Chinese ages were bamboo tablets, varnished, 
upon which characters were inscribed with a metal 
stylus, but not a single specimen is known to be now 
in existence. The ten " stone drums," still to be seen 
in the Confucian temple in Peking, bear inscriptions 
in the character employed in the Chou dynasty> to 



OLD CHINA 37 

which they probably belonged. The brush pencil 
with which the Chinese write their characters is 
ascribed by tradition to the third century b. c.^ 
though it may be earlier. Paper was an invention 
of the Han period, and was first made of silk (as 
one form of the character representing it shows, be- 
ing compounded of the radical signifying silk), 
but this was too expensive, and was succeeded by 
the inner bark of trees, old rags, and fish nets. 

In the year B. c. 190, the law of Ch'in Shih Huang 
against the existing literature was repealed, and a 
literary renaissance ensued, in which many thousand 
works, classical, philosophical, poetical, military, 
mathematical, and medical, were laboriously col- 
lected, but at the close of the dynasty during an 
insurrection they were all reduced to ashes. Nearly 
every succeeding dynasty has repeated the process 
of collection, the literary treasures at one time 
amounting to a load for " more than 2,000 vehicles." 
In later catastrophes these would be again and again 
destroyed or lost. Mr. Wylie's " Notes on Chinese 
Literature," from which these facts are quoted, men- 
tions five great " bibliothecal catastrophes," includ- 
ing that of Ch'in Shih Huang, in the final one of 
which, occurring at the beginning of the sixth cen- 
tury, the greater part of 70,000 volumes was burned. 

The Han dynasty was the formative period of 
Chinese polity and institutions. It was then that 
the system of competitive examinations had its rise, 
and the early rulers " developed literature, com- 



38 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

merce, arts, and good government to a degree un- 
known before anywhere in Asia." Of the great 
T'ang dynasty, Dr. Williams remarks : " This cel- 
ebrated line of princes began its sway In peace, and 
during the 289 years they held the throne China was 
probably the most civilised country on earth; the 
darkest days of the West, when Europe was wrapped 
in the ignorance and degradation of the Middle 
Ages, formed the brightest era of the East. They 
exercised a humanising effect on all the surrounding 
countries, and led the inhabitants to see the benefits 
and understand the management of a government 
where the laws were above the officers. The people 
along the southern coast were completely civilised 
and incorporated into the Chinese race, and mark 
the change by always calling themselves * Men of 
Tang '." 

The second T'ang Emperor, T'ai Tsung {(^2^- 
650)? was one of the greatest of Oriental monarchs. 
He cultivated literature and learning, building an 
enormous library close to his palace, reminding one 
in several ways of Alfred the Great. He became 
a patron of the Nestorian Christians, who had al- 
ready been in China much more than a century, 
but whose sole relic is a tablet of black marble 
erected in 781, which still stands in the suburbs of 
Si Ngan fu, in Shensi, where it was accidentally 
dug up by workmen in the year 1625. 

In a single year " embassies from a great num- 
ber of tributary Kingdoms and States came to the 



OLD CHINA 39 

Capital to pay their respects and to offer tribute; 
and the great variety of languages spoken by the 
envoys and the great diversity of their costumes 
testified to the power and prestige of the Chinese 
Empire." The T'ang is remembered as the period 
in which the first somewhat rude printing was exe* 
cuted in China, five hundred years before the art was 
invented in Europe, as well as the epoch of the first 
paper money, so much in evidence a few centuries 
later under the Mongols. In this dynasty, too, 
within six years of the flight of Mohammed, his 
followers are said to have entered China, where 
they have ever since been established, especially in 
certain special provinces, to the present reputed 
number of perhaps twenty millions. They are of 
central Asian and not of Arabic descent. 

The T'ang was the golden age of Chinese poetry, 
of which a collection has been published during the 
present dynasty, running to the length of nearly 
50,000 separate poems. Buddhism made great 
headway, owing to the unreligious nature of the 
teachings of Confucius, but when elaborate prepa- 
rations were made to receive with distinguished 
honour a bone of Sakyamuni (or Siddartha), the 
founder of the faith, China's ablest statesman and 
philosopher, Han Wen-kung, wrote an overwhelm- 
ing attack upon the innovation, which is still cher- 
ished as a model of unanswerable reasoning. He 
was punished by banishment to the southern fron- 
tiers of the Empire, where he tamed the barbarians 



40 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

of the region now known as Swatow, returning later 
to enjoy iionour while he lived and to become a god 
of literature after his death. He is also, strange to 
say, in some parts of China regarded as the tute- 
lary god of the Chinese village. Amid the internal 
and external struggles which constitute so large a 
feature of Chinese national history, "the eleventh 
century holds a marked place as the commencement 
of a new era in Chinese literature." Five unimpor- 
tant dynasties had given place to the Sung, which in 
a northern and a southern capital controlled the des- 
tinies of the Empire for more than three centuries. 
Ssu-Ma Kuang spent nineteen years of his life in 
preparing a Mirror of History from the Chou dy- 
nasty to his own time. 

The most distinguished man produced by China 
at the time of the Sungs was undoubtedly Chu Hsi 
(a. d. 1 130-1200), who was at once a statesman 
and a voluminous author, and whose interpretations 
of the Classics, varying widely from those of the 
Han, have become the standard of orthodoxy ever 
since. The adoption of a hard and fast system of 
exegesis in works of so wide a scope and so vast a 
range has tended to run the intellectual and moral 
nature of the Chinese in cast-iron moulds, and is 
probably the principal factor in the unalterable fixity 
of China. The influence of Chu Hsi over the mil- 
lions of educated Chinese since his time may justly 
be reckoned as second only to that of Confucius 
and Mencius, whom he expounded. 



OLD CHINA 41 

It is of interest to learn that more than eight 
centuries ago there was in China a socialistic states- 
man of the Sung dynasty, named Wang An-shih, 
whose influence over the Emperor whose reign is 
styled Shen Tsung (a. d. 1068- 1086) was so great 
that he was allowed to put his ideas into practice. 
Among the reforms proposed by him were the fol- 
lowing : ( I ) The nationalisation of the commerce of 
the Empire. The taxes were to be paid in the pro- 
duce of the land and in manufactured commodities, 
and the surplus products and commodities were to be 
purchased by the Government, which would after- 
wards transport them to the different parts of the 
Empire where they were in demand, and sell them 
at a reasonable profit. This reform was intended to 
do away with the oppression of the rich, who bought 
from the poor at as low rates as possible, and, gain- 
ing control of the market, sold at exorbitant prices. 
(2) State advances for the cultivation of the soil. 
It was proposed that the Government should ad- 
vance capital to the poor farmers, to be repaid after 
the harvests in the sixth and tenth months, and that 
the rate of interest for such loans should be two per 
cent, per month. (3) The Militia Enrollment Act. 
It was proposed to divide the whole Empire into 
divisions of ten families, with a headman, with ad- 
ditional headmen for fifty families, and for five hun- 
dred. Each family with more than one son was 
bound to give one for the service of the State, like 
the landwehr. (4) The imposition of an income 



42 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

tax for the construction of public works. This was 
intended as a substitute for compulsory labour, but 
it was impossible to ascertain the incomes, and the 
plan was violently opposed, and like all the reform- 
ers' schemes came to naught, ending in his disgrace. 
He is said to have been a man of frugality and of 
obstinacy, being always perfectly certain that he was 
right and every one else was wrong. 

It is a characteristic Chinese trait that all these 
innovations were based upon certain new and more 
correct interpretations of portions of the ancient 
classics. The name of Wang An-shih has gener- 
ally been treated with contempt by the historians of 
China, and his economic theories have been looked 
upon as dangerous and destructive innovations. 

Kublai Khan, of the Yuan or Mongol dynasty, 
was a grandson of the world-renowned Tartar, Gen- 
ghis Khan, who first carried his conquests over al- 
most the whole of Asia from the Pacific to the 
Caspian Sea, and then threatened Europe. Kublai 
Khan was a liberal and an enlightened monarch who 
adopted Chinese ways, patronised Chinese literature, 
and under whose rule the Empire greatly prospered. 
He extended the partial system of existing canals 
and dug new connections, so that Hangchow, in the 
Chekiang province, which was one of his capitals, 
was united by inland waterways six hundred or more 
miles in length with Peking (then called Cambaluc). 
This made the transportation of tribute rice inde- 
pendent of the long and dangerous sea route. It was 



OLD CHINA 43 

in the reign of this great ruler that Marco Polo 
(1275) made his memorable visit to Cathay, so- 
called (from the Khitan Tartars), which may be 
considered the rediscovery of China by the West. 
The first Roman Catholic missionaries to reach 
China met with a reception from Kublai Khan not 
unlike that of the Nestorians from T'ai Tsung, of 
the T'ang dynasty. Under Kublai's rule the Chi- 
nese Empire became the most extensive domain that 
had ever been ruled by one man, stretching from the 
Yellow to the Black Sea, and from northern Mon- 
golia to the frontiers of Annam. 

The short-lived Mongol rule soon gave place to 
the Chinese Mings, who governed the Empire for 
more than three centuries, and then fell into decay, 
as all dynasties in China sooner or later do. Not 
one of the Ming monarchs was a ruler of the highest 
ability; but the dynasty as a whole makes a very 
good historical showing. It is of especial interest 
to Occidentals, because it embraces the earlier period 
of modern European intercourse with China, to 
which further reference must be made elsewhere. 
Like all the more important periods, the Ming era 
was a time of great literary activity. In its earlier 
years the Imperial library was said to contain 300,- 
000 books and more than double that number of 
manuscripts. To bring this vast wilderness of learn- 
ing within reach, the second Ming Emperor, whose 
reign is called Yung Le, undertook one of the most 
gigantic enterprises in the annals of bibliography. 



44 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAYi 

He appointed a committee of scholars "to collect 
in one body the substance of all the classical, his- 
torical, philosophical, and literary works hitherto 
published, embracing astronomy, geography, the oc- 
cult sciences, medicine. Buddhism, Taoism, and the 
arts." There were three presidents of the commis- 
sion, five chief directors, twenty sub-directors, and 
2,169 subordinates. The work was completed in 
1407 — ^just five hundred years ago — and contained 
in all 22fiyy books, besides the table of contents, 
which occupied sixty books. 

During the siege of Peking in 1900, the Han- 
lin Academy, which contained the only known copy 
of this literary monument in the empire, was fired 
by the government troops, with the desire of burn- 
ing the British legation. A great number of the 
volumes were destroyed by fire and by water, the re- 
mainder being dispersed to libraries and museums 
all over the world. 

The second Emperor of the Manchu dynasty was 
K'ang Hsi (1662-1723), whose life was contempo- 
raneous with that of Louis XIV, of France. His 
long reign of sixty-one years was one of the most 
brilliant in all Chinese history, for he was " a great 
warrior, an able scholar, and a wise ruler." He 
endeavoured to stop foot-binding among Chinese 
girls, a practice dating from the T'angs, but, after 
four years of failure, the edict, lest it should cost 
him the throne, was withdrawn. As the men had 
been forced to adopt the Tartar cue, on pain of los- 



OLD CHINA 45 

ing their heads, the inference that Chinese women 
were not susceptible of being controlled by Imperial 
decrees was not lost upon the Chinese themselves. 

Prof. Giles considers K'ang Hsi ** the most suc- 
cessful patron of literature the world has ever seen." 
He caused to be prepared a great collection of ex- 
tracts in no volumes, an encyclopedia in 450 books, 
an enlarged Herbal, a complete collection of the 
most important philosophical writings of Chu Hsi, 
and also a great Lexicon of the Chinese language, 
embracing over 44,000 characters, illustrated by 
citations from authors of every age and style. 

His grandson, Ch^ien Lung, who on the comple- 
tion of his sixtieth year of rule abdicated his throne 
for the Chinese reason that he might not be guilty of 
an infraction of filial piety in reigning longer than 
his grandfather, was, like him, a man of letters, and 
executed great literary enterprises, including "(i), 
a magnificent bibliographical work in 200 parts, con- 
sisting of a catalogue of the books of the Imperial 
library, with valuable historical and critical notices 
attached to the entries in each, and (2) a huge to- 
pography of the whole Empire in 500 books, beyond 
doubt one of the most comprehensive and exhaust- 
ive works of the kind ever published." This mon- 
arch was likewise for more than fifty years an 
industrious poet, " finding time in the intervals of 
State duties to put together no fewer than 33,950 
separate pieces " — some of them, however, being 
distichs> or antithetical couplets, and others four- 



46 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

line stanzas. He was also a warrior, and, like his 
grandfather, a successful statesman. His armies 
defeated the King of Burmah, and forced into sub- 
mission the fiery Gurkhas on the further side of the 
almost impenetrable Himalayas. When he died, 
in 1796, " from the steppes of Mongolia on the 
north to Cochin China on the south, from Formosa 
on the east to Nepaul on the west, the Chinese ar- 
mies had everywhere been victorious." It was not 
a happy omen that this military glory coincided with 
the period during which the pressure of the untam- 
able European in China began to be most irksome. 

Every Englishman, it is said, is an Island, and 
every American a Declaration of Independence. 
Every Chinese may be regarded as an epitome of 
twenty-five dynasties and of the reigns of more 
than two hundred emperors. 



IV 

A GREAT RACE 

Students of Chinese antiquity like Dr. James 
Legge, who translated and with abundant learning 
edited all the voluminous Chinese Classics, from in- 
cidental allusions in the Odes and the Book of 
History and from drawings on stones showing the 
domestic utensils, the dwellings, the agricultural 
implements, the modes of transportation of the Chou 
dynasty, conclude that the normal life of the average 
Chinese of to-day is in many of its essentials not 
unhke that of his ancestors of 2,500 years ago. To 
understand this fact and the reasons for it is of the 
utmost importance, if we are at all to comprehend 
China. Occidental history has generally proceeded 
along apparently irregular lines, resembling earth- 
quake shocks, producing geologic " faults." Chi- 
nese history, on the other hand, may be likened to 
the imperceptibly slow rise of a continent, which, 
leaving the natural scenery unaltered, conveys the 
erroneous impression that " all things continue as 
they were from the beginning of creation." 

In the words of one of the most recent and most 
competent writers upon the Far East : " No other 
nation with which the world is acquainted has been 
so constantly true to itself; no other nation has 

47 



48 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

preserved its type so unaltered ; no other nation has 
developed a civilisation so completely independent 
of any extraneous influences; no other nation has 
elaborated its own ideas in such absolute segregation 
from alien thoughts ; no other nation has preserved 
the long stream of its literature so entirely free 
from foreign affluents; no other nation has ever 
reached a moral and national elevation compara- 
tively so high above the heads of contemporary 
States." ^ If " civilisation '^ be taken as signifying 
the replacing of physical by intellectual, and of in- 
tellectual by moral force, there can be no question of 
the antiquity, the extent, and the reality of Chinese 
civilisation. If, as we so unceasingly reaffirm, self- 
preservation is the first law of Nature, there can be 
no disputing that the Chinese have lived " according 
to Nature " — nay, that they are the only people that 
have so lived, since they are the only ones who have 
survived ; and now, after several millenniums of rel- 
atively slow " progress," are beginning to show that 
they have a reserve fund of physical, mental, and 
moral energy which is not only not exhausted, but 
is practically inexhaustible. Is not this a phenom- 
enon worthy of our investigation? 

Reflections of this sort must occur to those who 
are confronted with the Chinese. One of the ear- 
liest expressions of them is to be found in a work 
called " The Chinese and their Rebellions," pub- 
lished more than fifty years ago by one of Her 

1 Capt. F. Brinkley, in Oriental Series, " Japan and China," 
Vol. 10, page I. 



A GREAT RACE 49 

Majesty's Consuls, Mr. T. T. Meadows, a man 
of philosophic temper and of large knowledge of 
China, in the form of a meditation while seated on 
the Great Pyramid : " These old stone blocks I am 
sitting upon, what different peoples they have looked 
down on in this Nile valley below! First their 
old hewers flourished and fell. Then came the Per- 
sians. Then the Greeks ruled here and founded 
Alexandria. After them came the Romans; their 
traces are visible in old Cairo there. Egyptians, 
Greeks, and Romans have all utterly disappeared 
from the face of the earth. They have been fol- 
lowed here by the Mohammedan Arabs, at first en- 
thusiastic fighters for the name of the One True 
God, now mere * backshish hunters ' from these 
guides up to their Pashas. They too must vanish; 
they are in fact vanishing as a nation before our 
eyes. The Chinese started in the race of national 
existence with the oldest of the old Egyptians, long 
before this huge mound of stones was piled up. 
They outlived their ancient contemporaries. They 
outlived the Persians. They outlived the Greeks. 
They have outlived the Romans ; and they will out- 
live these Arabs. For they have as much youth and 
vitality in them as the youngest of young nations. 
. . . Here are the Chinese who have pro- 
longed their existence for 4,000 years, and nobody 
asks how ? I believe I am the only man living that 
has given himself serious trouble to investigate and 
elucidate the causes. 



so CfflNA AND AMERICA TO-BAY 

" What narrow-viewed observers in some respects 
Occidentals are! Even Bunsen in his book on 
Egypt makes some slighting remark on the old Chi- 
nese, as compared with the old Egyptians. Yet 
the former had to the latter something of the supe- 
riority that mind has to matter. They both of them 
tried to preserve and perpetuate themselves. The 
old Egyptians tried to do it by working on dead 
matter. They mummied their bodies and wasted 
an enormous amount of labour in piling up these 
stone mountains, good for no purpose of true civili- 
sation; and Occidentals look back with respect on 
them for doing it. The old Chinese, Yao and Shun 
— ^at the mere mention of whose names these same 
Occidentals break out into grins as broad as those 
of donkeys eating thistles — ^the old Chinese fixed 
their eyes on certain ineradicable principles of man's 
mind ; and, working on these, have founded and built 
up a monument, the grandest and most gigantic the 
world has ever seen, a thoroughly national nation 
of 360 millions of rational, industrious, and ener- 
getic people* 

In an attempt to suggest by a few hints the sources 
of the great qualities of the Chinese people, one is 
confronted by the obvious impossibility of correctly 
epitomising elements so elusory and obscure, and 
withal so widely different from those with which we 
are familiar in the development of the West. As we 
have seen, there were in the legendary period of Chi- 
nese history men like Yao, Shun, and Yii, who were 



A GREAT RACE 51 

called " Sheng/' or Holy Men (not with reference 
to likeness to the character of a Holy Being, but as 
embodying the conception of completeness — whole- 
ness). These men had an instinctive apperception of 
that Ultimate Principle which is the furthest and 
highest reach of Chinese philosophy — the Absolute, 
the source of all things. For this reason their teach- 
ings were deemed absolutely true, and the Holy 
Books which comprised them are an infallible au- 
thority. 

Confucius (bom in what is now the province of 
Shantung, b. c. 551, died 478), the last of this line 
of Holy Men, was both a philosopher and a states- 
man whose temperament and education fitted him 
to become, as he said that he was, a transmitter of 
the past for the reformation of the present.^ Al- 
though at different times he held office, his main 
work was in training a large body of disciples and 
in editing the works of antiquity. It is these an- 

2 " To these favouring conditions [of climate, etc.] we may 
well attribute the fact that here in the hills of Shantung the 
peculiar civilisation of the Chinese attained its highest devel- 
opment, and produced in the seventh and sixth centuries be- 
fore our era, a school of philosophers worthy to rank with 
their contemporaries in the West — in India and in Greece. It 
seems a marvellous coincidence that three advanced schools 
of elevated human thought should have thus arisen in three 
distinct centres totally independent of each other; schools 
which fixed the type' of the three great civilisations of the 
world — the Chinese, the Indian, and the Greek, this latter 
the foundation upon which rests the modern civilisation of 
Europe and the West."— Mr. Archibald Little in "The Far 
East," p. 23. 



52 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

cient books, with his own additions, and those of his 
disciples, which form the Chinese Classics. 

" Immediately after the Holy Men are the wise 
and worthy men, or Sages. The Sage does not 
possess intuitively a full apperception of the work 
of the Ultimate Principle in men and things, nor the 
faculty of spontaneously yielding complete obedi- 
ence to the dictates of his own perfect human nature ; 
but he attains a full apperception and a complete 
obedience by dint of study and effort. The Sages 
stand therefore decidedly below the Holy Men; 
there are even degrees among the Sages, while the 
Holy Men, being from the first all perfectly wise and 
good, are all equal. Still, the Sage who does attain 
that highest standard of excellence which is the ob- 
ject of his efforts, stands as a teacher almost if not 
quite on a level with the Holy Man." Mencius 
(born also in Shantung b. c. 372, died 279) was 
the greatest of the Sages. The Chinese consider 
Heaven, Earth, and Man as a trinity, in which 
Heaven is Father, Earth is Mother, and Man is the 
product of the two. It is for this reason that the 
Emperor is the " Son of Heaven," while the Sun is 
his elder brother, and the Moon his elder sister. 
The three fundamental tenets of Confucian thought 
may be said to be (in the language of Mr. Meadows, 
from whom the preceding paragraph is quoted) : 
The Fundamental Unity which underlies the variety 
of phenomena in Nature ; the existence in the midst 
of all change of an eternal Harmonious Order; 



A GREAT RACE 53 

and that man is endowed at his birth with a 
nature which is radically good. This latter doctrine 
may be considered as the threshold of Chinese learn- 
ing, since it is embodied in the opening couplet of 
the "trimetrical classic," dating from the Sung 
dynasty, which is generally the first book put into the 
hands of the little pupil, who learns to shout at the 
top of his voice : 

"All men at the beginning have a virtuous nature: 
"In their nature all agree, but in their practice they differ 
widely." 

Right rule is therefore merely the directing of 
human affairs in harmony with the law of heaven. 
Man's nature being thus perfectly good, its qual- 
ities as exhibited in active relation to the world are 
exhibited under the heads of Five Constant Virtues, 
represented in English by the words Benevolence, 
Righteousness, Propriety, Wisdom, and Fidelity; 
but it must be noted that these words convey 
but a part of the meaning implied, especially in the 
case of " propriety," which connotes not only that 
which ought to be done under certain conditions, 
but the principles which lead to it. Heaven has 
placed men in certain fixed " relations," which are 
five in number, that of Prince to Minister, Parent 
to Child, Husband to Wife, Brother to Brother, and 
Friend to Friend. 

As a "religion," for which the Chinese employ 
only the word Instruction, the Confucian system of 



54 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

thought involves the worship on the part of the 
Emperor of the powers of Nature, and on the part 
of both Emperor and people the worship of the Holy 
Men, Sages, and Heroes of the Past, who thus be- 
come practically deified. It involves especially the 
worship of ancestors, who stand in the relation of 
the fountain to the stream, and of the root to the 
tree. 

While the Chinese, like their great Master, Con- 
fucius, have always been agnostics in regard to a 
future life, the ceremonies of ancestral worship have 
always been regarded as of prime importance, and 
constitute their real religion. This worship may be 
regarded in one aspect as a memorial service, in 
which the worshippers are brought near to the de- 
ceased and the deceased are brought near to them. 
In another aspect, this worship is a formula im- 
peratively required by Filial Piety, and by which 
blessings and protection are afforded and ills are 
forefended. This dependence of the living upon the 
dead is matched by a like dependence of the dead 
upon the living, resulting in a substantial unification 
of the past and the present. " The individual char- 
acter of the Chinese, in which, with all its defects, 
there is so much to admire, owes much of its strength 
to the training which the young have always re- 
ceived in reverence both for living parents and au- 
thorities, as well as for dead ancestors." " The 
descendants are sharers in the virtues and illustrious 
deeds of their forefathers, and the forefathers again 



A GREAT RACE 55 

are ennobled by the illustrious deeds of their pos- 
terity." The rites of ancestral worship and the 
age-long system of civil service examinations are 
doubtless the two leading factors in producing that 
mental and moral unification of the Chinese which 
has resulted in its homogeneity and perpetuity." 

The system of thought which we designate as 
Confucianism has many great excellences, and like- 
wise many inherent defects, each of which has 
brought forth fruit after its kind ; but we are in this 
connection concerned merely to show that it has 
been a mighty force producing through long peri- 
ods of time effects elsewhere unequalled. In the 
prefecture of Yen Chou, and the district of Ch'ii Fu 
hsien in the Shantung province, is the grave of 
China's " throneless King." After an interval of 
intermittent neglect, extending to about three centu- 
ries, this spot was recognised by Imperial command, 
and has been the objective of millions of pilgrim- 
ages for more than two thousand years. A few 
miles to the south lies the simple, unenclosed mound 
which marks the last resting-place of Mencius, 
whose influence in their long history is second only 
to that of the Master. 

It is an interesting fact that the renaissance of 
China is in Chinese thought indissolubly associated 
with that Master whose face at that remote period 
was toward the more ancient ancients, in the imita- 
tion of whom he saw his country's only hope. It is 
therefore significant that at the close of the year 



56 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

1906, 2,384 years after his death, an Imperial decree 
was issued ordering that henceforth Confucius shall 
be honoured by the same ceremonies and sacrifices as 
are employed by the Emperor in the worship of 
Heaven and Earth. China has no Egyptian obe- 
lisks or Palmyran pillars, nor is the greatness of her 
civilisation in need of them. In this Empire, even 
more than elsewhere history is, in Carlyle's phrase, 
at bottom the story of its great men. In the second 
century of our era, under the Han dynasty, there 
was an official named Yang Chen, a native of Shansi, 
who was appointed Governor of a region now com- 
prised within the province of Shantung. As he 
passed through a certain city an old friend, who was 
now to be a subordinate to him, called upon him in 
the evening with the usual present of money from an 
inferior to a superior. " Surely," said Yang Chen, 
" though your old friend has not forgotten you, you 
have forgotten your old friend." " It is dark," re- 
plied his friend, " and no one will know." " Not 
know ? ^' said Yang Chen, " Heaven will know, 
Earth will know, you will know, and I shall know. 
How can you say, * No one will know ' ? " And 
from this circumstance the ancestral hall of the Yang 
family is to this day called : " The Hall of Four 
Knowings." Through the decay of morals at court, 
Yang Chen lost his influence and his posts, and drank 
a cup of poison. He would receive no bribes. He 
laid up no store for his descendants, and when a 
friend remonstrated with him on leaving nothing 



A GREAT RACE 57 

to his sons or grandsons, he repHed : " If posterity 
should speak of me as an incorruptible official, would 
that be nothing? " Is it any wonder that he is rev- 
erenced to-day? 

Near the city of Wei Hui fu, in northwestern 
Honan, may be seen a large tumulus marking the 
burial-spot of an incorruptible minister, named Pi 
Kan, who, at the command of a wicked King, to 
whom he was related, was killed, to ascertain 
whether his heart had " seven openings," as that 
of a Sage is reputed to do. This happened in b. c. 
1 123, and the lesson of the consequent downfall of 
the Shang dynasty has never for a moment of the 
intervening three thousand years been forgotten; 
nor have maledictions on the tyrant and encomiums 
upon the minister ever ceased. 

This much having been said in regard to the back- 
ground of Chinese history and Chinese thought, it 
remains to speak of a few race-traits in which the 
qualities inherent in the Chinese may be concretely 
discerned. The first to be named follows immedi- 
ately from the data already presented. It may be 
termed Reverence for the Past. This is carried to 
a pitch which to the Occidental is simply incompre- 
hensible, and extends from the past as a whole to 
everything in it, considered in detail. Citations from 
the works esteemed as classical, and sayings embody- 
ing the fruit of the longest experience in the fewest 
words, are universally current, even among the 
illiterate, as an epitome of wisdom unquestioned 



58 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

and unquestionable. The sum total of these dicta is 
" axiomatic China/* 

More than any other race in Asia, probably more 
than any people in the world, the Chinese have the 
historic instinct, which, as has already been men- 
tioned, has produced the most voluminous annals 
of every period. Dynasties have come and have 
gone; but, as we have seen, the general current of 
Chinese history has not been essentially altered. 
In China it has always been profoundly felt that 
"through the ages one increasing purpose runs," 
not for the development of the new, but for the 
preservation of the old. Every province and every 
city has its own records. Family genealogies are 
considered of great importance, and in the case of 
the oldest clans they extend back for four-score 
generations. 

It is the immeasurable greatness of China of which 
the Chinese are, as it were, unconsciously proud, 
and to preserve it, if they can, has been at once their 
unconscious and their conscious aim. This is the root 
of that conservatism without which China would 
have long since disappeared, like those other great 
empires, the rise, development, and decay of which 
she has witnessed with a not unnatural feeling of 
calm superiority. To them the strange evolutions 
of Occidental history must resemble the antics of a 
mouse in a jar of oxygen. The Chinese have had 
very little oxygen, but then they have had very little 
death from an overdose. They have fallen into a 



A GREAT RACE 59 

practical veneration of " old-time custom," as if it 
were a divinity. At the close of an address, in which 
this unchanging element of Chinese life and history 
was pointed out, as distinguished from the many 
short-lived empires and kingdoms of the Orient and 
the Occident, a bright English-speaking Chinese 
schoolgirl wished to inquire which is better for a 
nation, to have many evolutionary (and revolution- 
ary) changes and then go to pieces, or by avoiding 
them to become a hardy perennial? Perhaps the 
reader has his own preference. The Chinese likewise 
have theirs. 

From antiquity the Chinese have been imbued with 
a high regard for mental effort. The earliest char- 
acter in the first of the Chinese Classics — the Mem- 
orabilia of Confucius — is that signifying to " learn." 
When Chang Chih-tung, Governor-General of the 
two provinces of Hunan and Hupeh, wished to put 
forth a book which should stir the Chinese to the 
depths of their being with a sense of their own de- 
ficiencies, he entitled it simply, " Learn ! " ^ 

As the Chinese symbols of thought are unique in 
human literature, so likewise has been Chinese devo- 
tion to them. A singularly irrational system of in- 
struction and general poverty has produced among 
the great bulk of the common people a compulsory 
illiteracy, but it is always accompanied by a profound 
respect, not only for mentality, but even for the 

8 The translator has paraphrased and expanded the author's 
meaning by rendering it into English as " China's Only Hope." 



6o CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

characters which embody it. Benevolent societies 
send men about the streets of cities with baskets, to 
gather up scraps of paper upon which anything has 
been written or printed, receptacles being provided 
in which the paper is stored until burned in special 
furnaces. Western indifference to the fate of written 
or printed matter appears to the Chinese as an indi- 
cation of serious moral obtuseness. 

It is a popular proverb that to steal a book is not 
a crime. The trimetrical classic, already mentioned 
as the first handbook to which the scholar is intro- 
duced, teaches him that 



"Dogs watch at night; bees make honey; 
If one does not learn, he is inferior to animals and insects." 



At the head of the four classes into which, for 
many thousand years, mankind have been divided 
are placed Scholars ; Farmers and Workmen follow, 
and Merchants stand lowest of all, because they 
merely distribute and do not produce. Chinese 
officials, with their complicated series of nine ranks, 
each subdivided into primary and secondary, are 
discriminated as civil — the word for which is the 
same as that for literature — and military, the former 
respected and honoured, while the latter are rela- 
tively looked down upon. One of the current *^ re- 
forms " is the elevation of the military official to a 
parity with the civil officer, in accordance with the 
custom of the West. 



A GREAT RACE 6i 

Confucius is considered as the embodiment of that 
moral teaching which has always commended itself 
to every Confucianist, that is, to every Chinese. 
When the Chinese perceive Occidentals to be experts 
in the use of natural forces, but apparently indiffer- 
ent to the principles of Reason (Li), and Propriety, 
or the code of social order upon which Confucius 
and his followers always laid so much stress and by 
which all human relations ought to be regulated, 
they not unnaturally conclude that while Westerners 
are ingenious in mechanics, they cannot have had 
the privilege of a moral training in the way of the 
Sages. 

It is, indeed, difficult to overstate the advantage 
of dealing with a people who are imbued with a 
thorough-going and an hereditary respect for reason 
and for moral ideas. A Chinese has for law, and 
for all the symbols of law and of government, an 
innate and ineradicable reverence. This quality, and 
the fact that their form of government has always 
appeared to them, when rightly administered, ideal, 
makes the Chinese, both at home and abroad, good 
subjects. When governed upon lines to which they 
are accustomed and of which they approve, they are 
more easily governed than any other people, for in 
that case it may be said that they govern themselves. 

In this connection should be mentioned the fact 
that the government of China, so far from being as 
is often supposed an " absolute monarchy," is mon- 
archical in form only, administered throu'gh numer- 



62 CfflNA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

ous Boards and Bureaux, resting ultimately upon 
the consent of the people, whom one of the most 
ancient Classics declares to be " the Root," and the 
agency through which Heaven speaks. Chinese his- 
tory, as we have seen, has never been a mere hum- 
drum of routine, but has bristled with rebellions, 
because the people would not permanently submit 
to maladministration. It is a popular proverb that 
"when magistrates oppress, the people rebel." In 
general it may be said that there is a rebellion in 
progress somewhere in China all the time; but the 
causes are generally local, and for lack of unity and 
of resources the revolts are often apparently extin- 
guished, like fire in coal-bunkers, which may in real- 
ity be smouldering below* 

China is honeycombed with secret societies of all 
sorts, which the government is utterly incompetent 
to suppress, but which it now and again attacks with 
savage fury, sacrificing many lives; after which 
things go on as before, the organisation sometimes 
merely altering its name. In purely local affairs, 
the ofBcials generally take care not to interfere, for 
in these matters China is as democratic (albeit in a 
Chinese way) as America, and often much more so. 
If magistrates carry their oppression too far, the 
opposition may take the form of a boycott (an orig- 
inal and an ancient Chinese practice), the mer- 
chants closing all their shops, to the great distress 
of the people, whose clamour and whose threat of 
appeal to a higher official soon bring the magistrate 



A GREAT RACE 63 

to terms. Occasionally the magistrate is forcibly 
and bodily carried to the provincial capital, where 
he is deposited at the yamen of the Governor with 
the message : " We will not have this man to rule 
over us." The active participants are banished, but 
the magistrate is removed. On other occasions his 
sedan-chair is smashed, not infrequently his yamen 
is wrecked, and sometimes, to avenge intolerable 
wrongs, he is killed with brutal violence. In these 
and in many other ways the Chinese illustrate their 
irrepressible democracy. The highest officers in the 
Empire in memorials to the throne constantly adduce 
this national trait as an apology for violence to 
foreigners, for opposition to the introduction of 
steam navigation on inland waterways, as well as 
opposition to railways and mines, and there is often 
much to justify their standard plea of helplessness. 
The inherent democracy of China is inexplicable 
until we remember that, like all other institutions, it 
has its roots in the remote past. Mencius " elab- 
orated and amplified the system of Confucius, and 
in the process of amplification he propounded some 
doctrines of an essentially democratic nature. He 
taught that the throne is based upon the people's 
will, that in the presence of well-founded popular 
discontent, a sovereign should abdicate; that 
humane government is the only way to power; 
that a revolutionary leader may be followed by 
the people to the mitigation of their hardships ; that 
a bad king may be dethroned by a minister who is 



64 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

of royal blood, and even by one who, though lacking 
this qualification, is a Sage." 

" The Chinese people," says Mr. Meadows, " have 
no right of legislation, they have no right of self- 
taxation, they have not the power of voting out their 
rulers or of limiting or stopping their supplies. 
They have therefore the right of rebellion. Rebel- 
lion is in China the old, often exercised, legitimate, 
and constitutional means of stopping arbitrary and 
vicious legislation and administration." " As to 
practical freedom, a Chinese can sell and hold landed 
property with a facility, certainty, and security 
which is absolute perfection compared with English 
dealings of the same kind. He can traverse his 
country, throughout its 2,000 miles of length, un- 
questioned by any official, and in doing so can follow 
whatever occupation he pleases. He can quit his 
country and re-enter it without passport or other 
hindrance." In general, he pays no tax but that on 
land, which is probably the lightest in the world. 

Much of the lack of " progress " in modern China 
is due to the fact that while the foreigner is aggres- 
sive, the mandarins are ex officio obstructive, and the 
mass of the people immovable, so that the most 
strenuous effort simply produces friction and heat, 
and after all ends in inertia. It may be observed 
incidentally that, next to the Turk, the Chinese have 
most thoroughly systematised the art of masterly in- 
activity. The Tsung Li Yamen, or Chinese Foreign 
Office (abolished by the protocol of 1901 for one of 



A GREAT RACE 65 

a different pattern), was happily likened by Dr. 
Martin to a micrometer screw, contrived to diminish 
motion, and was characterised by Lord Salisbury as 
merely a machine to register the amount of pressure 
brought to bear upon it. 

It is an innate conviction of the Chinese people 
that work, hard work, and plenty of it is a necessary 
condition of human existence. Never did any race 
better illustrate the proposition that " Honest work 
rules the world." The Chinese individually rises 
early and works late (with highly intermittent se- 
quence) ; at home and abroad, always and every- 
where, he works. Unlike those in other lands who 
have become victims of social theories, he does not 
entertain the fallacy that, irrespective of his merits, 
the world ^' owes " him a living. He quite appre- 
ciates the state of the labour market, and unlike some 
Western labourers, he does not knock off work as 
soon as he has something to spend. Gambling and 
opium-smoking are the most common, although far 
from universal, Chinese vices, which not infrequently 
extinguish the worker's energy in ruinous inaction. 
The talent for industry pervades all classes. The 
life of the farmer is one of hard work. In the south- 
em part of the empire, farm-work literally never 
ends. In the north, the farmer often takes advan- 
tage of the enforced leisure season to go off to great 
distances, perhaps pushing a heavy wheelbarrow 
many scores, or even hundreds, of miles, loaded with 
some local product as cotton, or oil ; returning with 



66 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

a different load just in time to begin again the heavy; 
farm work. The variation of the fraction of a cent 
in the price of grain will suffice to set long lines of 
barrows and whole fleets of junks in motion. 

Because of the indefatigable labour bestowed upon 
it, Chinese farming rather resembles gardening upon 
a large scale. The contrast between the unkempt 
and neglected cotton patches in India, and the weed- 
less fields of the Chinese, is an index to quite differeni; 
interpretations of man's relation to Nature. 

The merchant class is not behind the farmer in its 
willingness to put forth great exertion for light re- 
wards. Dealers, small and large, send out employees 
to markets and to fairs with packs on their backs, 
slung to carrying-poles, or loaded on barrows, start- 
ing early and returning late, after which an account 
must be taken of every separate article, and prepara- 
tion made for an early departure on the morrow. 
The life of a clerk in a Chinese shop of any kind is 
no sinecure, and the master often works harder than 
any of his men. There is much grinding, routine 
and few holidays. 

For intellectual toil the Chinese have a phenom- 
enal talent. They are willing to submit to years 
of memoriter drudgery for the mere chance of enter- 
ing an examination, where it is certain that not more 
than two — or even one — in an hundred can pass; 
and which, when they have passed this process (ac- 
cording to the old regime), has to be indefinite!)^ 
repeated. Perhaps in the entire history of the world 



A GREAT RACE (>j 

no such misapplication of mental labour is to be 
found as in China; yet of this the Chinese them- 
selves have always remained happily unconscious. 

If the Chinese scholar is obliged to undergo 
fatiguing intellectual effort (under which he often 
breaks down in health), the life of an official hold- 
ing an important post is that of a galley-slave 
chained to his oar. In the Chinese system a single 
appointment frequently combines a variety of in- 
congruous functions. The same man may hold 
several different posts, many of the duties of which 
he must indeed commit to subordinates, but for all 
of which he is responsible. In general, no Chinese 
can hold even a sinecure office without much hard 
work, in the direction at least of contriving how not 
to lose it. 

The Chinese labourer has, with some exceptions, 
a steadiness, a sobriety, and likewise an intelligence, 
which not seldom renders him invaluable. He is 
thrifty and economical; yet when he receives good 
wages he is a liberal spender for what he wants, 
which makes him an excellent customer. A market 
among the Chinese, once gained, is said to be one of 
the most regular, and most susceptible of expansion, 
of any in the world. 

The Chinese have developed China to the utmost 
point of which it is capable without a more adequate 
knowledge on the part of the worker, and for this 
knowledge they are now seeking. The greater part 
of the habitable globe, on the other hand, is still un- 



68 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY, 

developed. Nearly every country about the great 
Pacific Ocean needs labour, and abundance of it. 
Siberia, Alaska, British Columbia, the United States, 
Mexico, Central and South America, Australia, New 
Zealand, Borneo, Java, the Philippines, though many 
of them exclude it, all need Chinese labour, which, 
all things considered, is the best in the world. 

The Anglo-Saxon is distinguished among the 
peoples of the earth for the rectilinearity of his 
speech. He calls a spade a spade, and not a garden 
implement. He congratulates himself upon his di- 
rectness, which is often a synonym for bluntness, and 
upon his sincerity, which is sometimes another name 
for rudeness. Social conventions he knows, and ob- 
serves when he must, but, like dress-suits and tall 
hats, they are to be got rid of as soon as possible. 
We understand that diplomacy requires caution, 
patience, gradual approach, tact, and suppression of 
the superfluous ; but for diplomacy the Anglo-Saxon 
has little taste and less talent. In this regard he is 
distinctly inferior to his Italian, Spanish, and French 
neighbours, but upon this inferiority he dwells with 
pride. 

The Oriental, who ages ago learned how best to 
oil the ways of social intercourse, is at an opposite 
pole. From his earliest years he is accustomed to 
forms, for to him forms are things. A Chinese boy 
or girl cannot be said to have any " awkward age," 
for they have been trained into a natural grace which 
is at once our envy and our despair. We are far 



A GREAT RACE 69 

too apt to despise codes of manners which in our 
nervous, bustling, hurrying age are tending more 
and more to disappear. We denounce the ceremo- 
nious Oriental as insincere, because we fail to appre- 
hend the point of view of the Oriental. He is not 
necessarily more " insincere " than are we, when we 
subscribe ourselves (as some still do) " Your most 
obedient servant," or when we use the adjective 
" Dear," to introduce an angry letter. In each case 
the other party comprehends perfectly what is in- 
tended. An American bawls to a passer-by: 
" Hello! is this the road to Boston?" Whereas a 
Chinese would say: " Great Elder Brother, may I 
borrow your light to inquire whether this is the 
imperial highway to Peking?" An American 
street-car conductor is hoarse from incessantly shout- 
ing : " Step lively, lady, step lively ! " We hear 
that under similar circumstances a Japanese conduc- 
tor quietly waits for every passenger, and when an 
intersecting route is reached, politely inquires: 
" Does any honoured guest desire a transfer to the 
Shimbashi line ? " 

No one who has lived for long in the East fails 
to recognise that the Oriental talent for courtesy is 
one of their rich gifts, which loses nothing from the 
lack of appreciation of those who can neither practise 
nor understand it. 

In his " English Traits," Emerson speaks appre- 
ciatively of the national ability to bring " oar to boat 
and salt to soup." In this respect the Chinese, who 



yo CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

is sometimes patronisingly referred to as " the 
Anglo-Saxon of Asia/' is not only our equal, but 
often much more than our equal. According to his 
theology — or cosmogony — Heaven, Earth, and Man 
are a triad, of which, as we have seen, Man is the 
middle term, so that he has only to adjust himself to 
the others to produce perfect equilibrium. His 
world is theoretically one of moral order. Practi- 
cally, he finds it one of moral disorder, but taking 
his theory as a working hypothesis he does with it 
the best he can. 

Nowhere is man more identified with his environ- 
ment than in China — " China and the Chinese," for 
neither would be the same without the other. The 
Chinese is not a natural inventor, but he has, as it 
were, stumbled upon some of the great facts of the 
universe. The mariner's compass, gunpowder (al- 
though this is disputed), and the art of printing; the 
manufacture of paper, the weaving of silk, the best 
methods of irrigation, the thorough-going fertilisa- 
tion of the soil (the latter a great advance upon the 
practice of most Occidental nations), with scores of 
other discoveries, we must credit to the Chinese. 
For ages they have ploughed their land in the au- 
tumn and not in the spring, a reform which the De- 
partment of Agriculture is now struggling under 
difficulties to teach the American farmer. Their 
methods of making lacquer, of ivory and wood carv- 
ing, and numerous other industries, show their talent 
for adaptation. 



A GREAT RACE 71 

In the province of Ssu-ch'uan, in Western China, 
there is a certain species of privet to which in the 
month of March excrescences or scales are found 
attached. On being opened, these present a pulpy 
mass of minute insects like flour, which eventually 
develop six legs and antennae. This is the white- 
wax insect, the export of which from their breeding- 
ground to a region 200 miles to the north, over a 
series of mountain ranges, was formerly a much 
greater industry than since the general introduction 
of kerosene oil. The scales are made up into paper 
packets, weighing about sixteen ounces. The army 
of porters travel only at night, and at the resting- 
places open and spread out their packets in cool 
places. Upon their arrival, the scales are tied up in 
a leaf, bound with a rice straw, and are hung close 
under the branches of the white-wax tree, where the 
males excrete the wax to the extent, in favourable 
years, of four or five pounds of wax to a single 
pound of scales. The excreting process requires 
about an hundred days, when the twigs are cut off, 
placed in boiling water, and the wax of commerce 
is run into moulds. How came the Chinese to learn 
how to adapt themselves to this singular process of 
nature ? In the same province there are brine wells 
and petroleum wells more than 2,000 feet in depths 
which have been worked by ropes made of split bam- 
boo for at least 1,650 years. 

Mr. Meadows instances the gentle and cautious 
Chinese method of coaxing a chicken into a coop, in 



72 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

contrast with our habit of shouting, chasing with 
dogs, and hurhng missiles, as an example of superior 
civilisation on the part of the Chinese, in exhibiting 
a better adaptation of means to ends. Every travel- 
ling Chinese tinker with his tiny charcoal stove and 
small kit of tools, who with little copper clamps can 
deftly join broken crockery, and do any kind of 
metal work with neatness, is in a different line 
another instance. Small Chinese children often ap- 
pear quite able to judge of the probable output of the 
family crop, and are familiar with the comparative 
cost of everything which the family buys or sells. 
" In every detail of handling and moving commodi- 
ties, from the moment they leave the hands of the 
producer in his garden-patch to the time when they 
reach the ultimate consumer, perhaps a thousand 
miles away, the Chinese trader is an expert. Times 
and seasons have been elaborately mapped out, the 
clue laid unerringly through labyrinthine currencies, 
weights, and measures, which to the stranger seem 
a hopeless tangle, and elaborate trade customs 
evolved appropriate to the requirements of a myriad- 
sided commerce, until the simplest operation has been 
invested with a kind of ritual observance, the effect 
of the whole being to cause the duplex wheels to run 
both smoothly and swiftly." 

It might be expected that if an average Chinese 
were suddenly dropped from the clouds upon an un- 
familiar spot of the earth's surface, he would make 
a rapid survey of his environment, and proceeding 



A GREAT RACE 73 

(like the Yankee in the story navigating a captured 
stranded whale) to conform to the new conditions, 
would boldly and successfully face all competitors. 
A Chinese of experience always has a contrivance for 
every emergency, and frequently one of which no 
foreigner would have thought, and which he would 
not have known how to use if he had thought of it. 
It is this quality which makes the Chinese invaluable 
under strange conditions — especially on long jour- 
neys. 

In a way which often seems to us clumsy, 
they achieve almost impossible results, as in trans- 
porting for long distances huge blocks of stone for 
Imperial tablets by webs of rope attached to a regi- 
ment of horses and mules. The scaffolding by the 
aid of which the huge towers over the city gates of 
Peking — and other cities — are erected, are them- 
selves works of art, and are all held together by ropes 
much more securely than by our method of driving 
precarious nails. Many years ago a partly built 
railway bridge in Tientsin was abandoned, the 
foreign engineers in vain applying steam-power to 
draw out the piles. When they had at last ex- 
hausted their energies, the Chinese securely lashed 
flat-bottomed boats to the timbers, and the rising 
tide at once pulled them out. The method by which 
nearly twenty years ago the Yellow River was in- 
duced to resume its old course through Shantung, 
instead of taking the short-cut to the south, was a 
marvel of ingenuity, and was successful despite the 



74 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

predictions to the contrary of foreigners on the spot, 
both amateurs and experts. 

Climatically, the Chinese have no habitat They 
flourish on the banks of the Amur, in the tropics, 
and everywhere between. Their physical vitality 
is the wonder of the world. But their intellectual 
adaptability is even more remarkable than their 
physical. Their traditional system of instruction 
has done little to make their minds alert, but much to 
render them receptive. The faculty of memory, 
which nearly all our modem systems of education 
either ignore or decry, but upon which literally every 
mental acquisition depends for its value, the Chinese 
have cultivated to an unexampled extent, being able 
to repeat books verbatim by the cubic foot. This 
gives an exactness of knowledge to which most 
Americans, at least, are strangers. 

More than half-a-century ago, Dr. Yung Wing, 
then a student at Yale College, took a prize for Eng- 
lish composition. From that day to this, Chinese 
students in all departments of learning — mathe- 
matics, law, and oratory — have constantly showed 
their equality with the rest, and not infrequently their 
pre-eminent superiority to most. When the age- 
long training of Chinese in lines totally unlike West- 
ern studies is considered, Chinese adaptation to such 
an intellectual atmosphere is recognised as a remark- 
able phenomenon. 

The Chinese system of government, by its persist- 
ance and in its effects, is one of the most unique 



A GREAT RACE 75 

examples of organisation to be found in human his- 
tory. This system appears the more theoretically 
well-balanced the more it is considered. It has all 
the compactness and all the flexibility of a well- 
bound raft; and even if in rapids and whirlpools it 
works loose, it is soon securely lashed together again 
and the unending voyage is resumed as before. The 
democratic local government exhibits the phenom- 
enon of endless variety with substantial unity, and 
essential indestructibility. Chinese trade-guilds, 
like those in Europe during the Middle Ages — a 
period of history in which China may be said to have 
been living until recently- — display a sinewy structure 
to which the Western world affords perhaps no anal- 
ogies. To run counter to their currents is to try 
conclusions with an adult iceberg. 

The units of every class of Chinese society know 
how to enter into an effective union like that of 
chemical atoms. Officials combine with officials 
against officials, and the resultant is that composition 
of motion which an American calls " practical poli- 
tics." Scholars, whose rights or whose dignity have 
been invaded by an official, collect in packs and rend 
him. Merchants, as already mentioned, wield the 
weapon of the boycott, the ultimate consequences of 
enforcing which will bring any official to bay. Salt- 
merchants and pawnshop keepers — two licensed and 
semi-official lines of business — are equipped to com- 
bat officials who strive to gratify at their expense 
the unquenchable thirst for silver. Yamen-runners, 



y6 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

compradores, middlemen of every sort and grade, all 
domestic and other servants, and in general all who 
do business for others, have an elaborate and com- 
plicated system of extracted percentages, which 
foreigners call " squeezes." They resemble the 
pressure of the atmosphere, silent, invisible, perhaps 
unfelt, equally distributed in all directions, and in- 
evitable. 

The great drawback in the exercise of the unique 
talent of organisation has always been mutual sus- 
picion, and the domination of personal, local, and 
class interests over the general welfare. There are 
indications that these serious disabilities are begin- 
ning to be less of an obstacle to united action. That 
in the new China they will tend to diminish is a 
moral certainty. 

From the days of Sir John Davis to the present 
time, the " cheerful industry " of the people has been 
the most notable sight in China. This is not incon- 
sistent with much inarticulate protest in particular 
cases, not against the system under which they live, 
but against the lot of the special individual. In the 
past, the Chinese army has been largely recruited 
from malcontents and runaways. It is true that 
Chinese men, women, and girls commit suicide on 
slight provocation for revenge or in despair. Yet 
these absolutely numerous cases are relatively few. 
The Chinese are unconscious fatalists. In the midst 
of surroundings which appear to Occidentals to offer 
nothing to make life happy, or even tolerable, they 



A GREAT RACE y*j 

move serenely on, without haste and without pause. 
Chinese content is often erroneously supposed to be 
based upon ignorance. Yet countless myriads hear 
without a sigh of other lands where wages are high 
and life more attractive than at home. The ills of 
their lives are accepted as we put up with our climate. 
It may be bad, but I cannot help it, neither can any 
one else, and that is the end of it. The impact of 
Occidental civilisation is perpetually introducing into 
China, if not a " divine discontent," at least a pro- 
found dissatisfaction with things as they are. But 
as yet this affects but a microscopic fraction of the 
population. The remainder, whatever may befall, 
will doubtless continue to exercise their phenomenal 
faculty not only for taking things as they come, but, 
what is much more difficult, for parting with them as 
they go, and in each case with that equanimity of 
spirit which we call " content." 

As we have already seen, the perpetual existence 
of the Chinese people is an illustration of this gift. 
It is a gigantic instance of the survival of the fittest. 
Their physical constitution enables them to live on 
coarse food, often in insufficient quantities, and yet 
to thrive. They can endure cold, heat, fatigue, 
hunger, and the loss of sleep. Their moral ideals 
have been higher than those of any other non- 
Christian nation, and of this fact they have con- 
sciously reaped the benefit in a solidity and a rotund- 
ity of character not elsewhere to be found in Asia. 
They are not lightly attracted to an alien faith, but 



78 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

modern times have produced no more patient, heroic, 
and devoted martyrs than the Chinese. 

We may conclude with a quotation from Sir 
Robert Hart, who wrote shortly after the relief of 
Peking, where he, for nearly half-a-century an 
honoured and trusted high official of the Chinese 
Government, with many others, was threatened with 
massacre by Boxers and by Imperial troops under 
the immediate sanction of the Throne : " It must be 
freely allowed that the Chinese possess quite as large 
a share of admirable qualities as others, and that 
these are not merely to be found in isolated cases 
here and there, but are characteristic of the race as 
a whole and the civilisation it has developed. They 
are well-behaved, intelligent, economical, and indus- 
trious; they can learn anything and do anything; 
they are punctiliously polite; they worship talent, 
and they believe in right so firmly that they scorn 
to think it requires to be supported or enforced by 
might; they delight in literature, and everywhere 
they have their literary clubs and coteries for hear- 
ing and discussing each other's essays and verses; 
they possess and practise an admirable system of 
ethics, and they are generous, charitable, and fond of 
good works; they never forget a favour and they 
make rich returns for any kindness ; and though they 
know money will buy service, a man must be more 
than wealthy to win public esteem and respect ; they 
are practical, teachable, and wonderfully gifted with 
common-sense^ they are excellent artisans, relia- 



A GREAT RACE 79 

ble workmen, and of a good faith that everyone 
acknowledges and admires in their commercial deal- 
ings. In no country that is or was has the com- 
mandment * honour thy father and thy mother ' been 
so religiously obeyed as it is among the Chinese, or 
so fully and without exception given effect to, and 
it is in fact the keynote of their family, social, offi- 
cial, and national life, and because it is so their days 
are long in the land God has given them.'' 

The foregoing pages may be taken as an imperfect 
summary of a few great race-traits — a sketch in 
charcoal far enough from completeness. Here, then, 
we have one of the remarkable races in the history of 
mankind. Perhaps the twentieth century may have 
no larger issue than the consideration of what is to 
be the relation between the Anglo-Saxon and the 
Chinese peoples. 



THE BRASS DISH AND THE IRON BRUSH 

The beginnings of the relations between the Occi- 
dent and China are lost in the mists of antiquity, but 
there is adequate evidence that perhaps as early as 
the opening of the second century b. c. " a commerce 
of appreciable magnitude existed between the Roman 
Empire and Northern China, silk, iron, and furs 
being carried westward, while glassware, woven 
stuffs, embroideries, drugs, metals, asbestos, and 
gems were sent to China. Syria — or * Ta Ts'in ' 
[or Ch'in], as the Chinese called it — was the origin 
of this commerce, and Parthia was the half-way 
house, the transport being entirely overland." ^ 

These land routes were extremely difficult. " At 

the north the Ural Mountains interposed an almost 

impassable barrier, in the central region a great 

desert stretched almost continuously from the 

Mediterranean to India and China, and threatened 

the lives of men and animals which invaded it. At 

the south of that desert was that impassable mass of 

mountains known as * The Roof of the World,' — ^the 

Himalayas." On the other hand, however, it is said 

that " the topographical conditions along trans- 

1 " Japan and China," by Capt. F. Brinkley, vol x., pp. 134 
and 138-9. 

80 



BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 8i 

Asian routes to North China were very different 
two thousand years ago from what they are to-day. 
. . . Excavations now in progress tend to prove that 
a high state of culture existed among the people, 
that the art influences of Greece and Rome were felt 
there, that Buddhism was the religion of the inhabi- 
tants, and that they derived their civilisation from 
India. But owing, apparently to insuflicient irriga- 
tion, the towns and villages were gradually buried 
under advancing sands, just as in the case of Egypt, 
and where gardens, avenues, and orchards once 
existed, there is now only a waste." ^ 

The conquests of Alexander the Gieat gave a 
great impulse to overland trade with China. The 
consolidation of the empire of the Western world 
under the Romans continued and expanded it. In 
the year i66 a. d., Marcus Aurelius sent a mission to 
China through Burmah and Yunnan, the Parthians 
monopolising and blocking the land route, and " thus 
it fell out, toward the close of the second century, a. 
D., that ships began for the first time to reach Canton, 
and commerce was partly deflected to the ocean path 
in the south from the trans-Asian routes to the 
north." 

In the last quarter of the fifth century, the Turks 
on the northern frontier of China bought silk and tea 
in exchange for articles of iron. In the seventh 

2 "The Commercial Prize of the Orient," a paper in the 
National Geographical Magazine, Sept., 1905, by Hon. O. P. 
Austin, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics. 



82 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

century Arab traders from Java, the Malay Penin- 
sula, and Indo-China opened factories in various 
places between Persia and the Far East, as well as 
at Canton, which in the middle of the eighth century 
was a small place surrounded by aborigines. This 
is thought to be the first instance of foreigners set- 
tling in China for commercial purposes. We now 
come to an entirely different set of phenomena. 

The discovery of America by Christopher Colum- 
bus, at the end of the fifteenth century, was soon 
followed by the knowledge of two water-routes to 
the Far East, one of them around the Cape of Good 
Hope, through the Indian Ocean, exploited by the 
Portuguese, the other around Cape Horn and across 
the Pacific, which was pre-empted by the Span- 
iards. 

Within less than twenty years of the first voyage 
of the great Genoese, the Portuguese had reached 
Malacca (a tributary of China) and five years later 
(in 1 516), almost four centuries ago, they arrived 
at Canton. They established " factories," or trad- 
ing establishments at Ningpo in the Chekiang prov- 
ince and at Ch'uan Chou (or Chin Chou), in 
Fukien; but their conduct was marked by such ex- 
treme lawlessness that in the former place the 
Chinese people rose against them en masse, attack- 
ing the Portuguese colony, " destroying twelve 
thousand Christians, inclusive of 800 Chinese, and 
burning thirty-five ships and two junks." The 
special acts of the Portuguese to which the Chinese 



BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 83 

took exception, were not merely infesting the coast 
as pirates from Ning-po to Ch'uan Chou, but making 
a raid on the tombs of some " Chinese Kings " in 
the neighbourhood, with a view to rifling them, and 
sallying out into neighbouring villages to kidnap 
Chinese women and girls. This expulsion happened 
in 1545, and, four years later, a like event happened 
at Ch'uan Chou, " and thus, by conduct of which, 
had the Chinese themselves been guilty of it, no 
condemnation would have been found too strong, 
the Portuguese permanently lost their footing on 
the mainland." Their first occupation of the small 
tongue of land, known as Macao, was gained by a 
deception, for, pretending that "certain goods 
falsely represented as tribute, had been injured in 
a storm and must be dried, they obtained permission 
to erect sheds at Macao for that purpose, and sub- 
sequently remained as tenants of the place on pay- 
ment of five hundred ounces of silver." Unable to 
expel them, the Chinese, in self-defence, subse- 
quently deliminated Macao from the mainland by 
putting up a stone wall. 

The next European comers were the Spaniards, 
who, having seized the Philippine Islands (1543), 
became suspicious of the Chinese, and perpetrated an 
indiscriminate massacre, during a period of several 
days, of all the Chinese on the islands. Many thou- 
sands were either put to the sword or sent to the 
galleys. This proceeding was repeated nearly sixty 
years later, when it was feared that the Chinese 



84 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

settlers would ally themselves with a dreaded pirate 
known as Koxinga. 

Following the Portuguese and the Spaniards, 
came the Dutch, who signalised their advent by at- 
tacking indiscriminately both Portuguese and 
Spaniards. "They asailed Macao [1622] with 
seventeen ships, but being repulsed went to the 
Pescadore Islands, which they occupied [1624]," 
building a fort there and forcing the Chinese to la- 
bour for them. There was no quarrel between China 
and Holland. The two countries were complete 
strangers to each other. Thus their acquaintance 
opened first with an armed attempt on the part of the 
Dutch to drive the Portuguese from a place in China 
which the latter had leased to them, and, secondly, 
with the forceful seizure of another place in China's 
territory, though no state of war existed or even 
any cause of quarrel. In short, the Dutch intro- 
duced themselves to the Chinese in the guise of in- 
ternational freebooters." ^ 

The Chinese finding the lawless raids of the Dutch 
on the coast inconvenient, cleverly contrived to per- 
suade them to evacuate the Pescadores, and to re- 
move to Formosa, a large island opposite the Fukien 
province, which the Chinese had never occupied and 
to which they had, therefore, no claim. Harried by 
the enterprising Chinese military force, to Formosa 
the Dutch went, where they later put a stop to the 
promising work of converting the natives to Chris- 

3 " Japan and China," vol. x., p. 180. 



BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 85 

tianity, lest their trade with Japan should be jeop- 
arded — that empire having expelled the Christians. 
At the end of a siege of nine months, and with the 
loss of 1,600 men, the Dutch after twenty-eight years 
of rule were permanently driven out of Formosa 
by the pirate Koxinga. In 1665, and again in 
1795-6, they sent embassies to Peking, on each of 
which occasions they performed the " three kneelings 
and the nine head-knockings '^ to an empty throne, 
in the role of tribute-bearers. Dr. Williams briefly 
summarises De Guignes' account of their last journey 
to Peking, where the Emperor's " hauteur was a be- 
fitting foil to their servility, at once exhibiting both 
his pride and their ignorance of their true position 
and rights. They were brought to the capital like 
malefactors, treated when there like beggars, and 
then sent back to Canton like mountebanks to per- 
form the three-times-three prostration at all times 
and before everything their conductors saw fit; 
while the latter, on their part, stood by and laughed 
at their embarrassment in making these evolutions 
in tight clothes. They were not allowed a single 
opportunity to speak about business, which the 
Chinese never associate with an embassy. . . . Van 
Braam's account of this embassy is one of the most 
humiliating records of ill-requited obsequiousness 
before insolent government lackeys which any 
European was ever called upon to pen. The mis- 
sion returned to Canton in April, 1796, having at- 
tained no more noble end than that of saluting the 



86 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

Emperor, and this, indeed, was all the Chinese meant 
should be done, when themselves suggesting the en- 
tire performance; for, in order to understand much 
of their conduct toward their guests, the feelings 
they entertained toward them must not be lost sight 
of." In the year 1839. the Dutch issued an inter- 
dict against the admission of Chinese settlers to any 
of the Dutch-Indian colonies, since the skill of the 
immigrants threatened to engross the labour market. 
" It was left," as Captain Brinkley remarks, " for 
the Dutch to practise exclusiveness against others 
while claiming liberality for themselves. Other 
nations, however, are not ashamed to follow in the 
same course even in the twentieth century." 

The first foreign treaty which the Chinese ever 
concluded was that of Nerchinsk with Russia in 
1689, by which that power was compelled to retire 
from territory which she had held for eight and 
thirty years. Yet despite this rebuff, and notwith- 
standing the long conterminous frontier of Russia 
and China, these countries contrived for more than 
two centuries to get on without any of those hostili- 
ties experienced in the case of every other nation. 
The process of stealthy absorption of Chinese ter- 
ritory, euphemistically termed " painless identifica- 
tion," which went on unimpeded for nearly half-a- 
century, was in 1905 abruptly checked by the 
decisive victory of Japan in the Tsushima Straits. 

The English introduced themselves to China long 
after the Continentals (1637), but were bitterly 



BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 87 

antagonised by the Portuguese, who represented 
them to the Chinese as " rogues, thieves, and beg- 
gars." In consequence of this the Chinese forts 
fired upon the English ships, by whom the fire was 
furiously returned for two or three hours, when the 
fort was taken, and the English colours displayed. 
A letter was then despatched to the officials at Can- 
ton remonstrating against the attack, explaining the 
capture of the fort, and asking for liberty of trade. 

With these preliminary amenities, English com- 
merce with China was opened. As the Ming 
dynasty was then tottering to its fall, nothing further 
was attempted in the way of trade until 1664, when 
the effort came to naught through the jealousy of 
the Portuguese, who never lost an opportunity of 
misrepresenting to the Chinese the character and 
designs of the English. In 1670, the English were 
successful in making a treaty with the ex-pirate 
Koxinga, who ruled Formosa. " This, the first 
commercial convention concluded by a European 
power with a Chinese potentate, is specially inter- 
esting because of its explicit provision on the subject 
of jurisdiction. The extra-territoriality principle 
received clear recognition, the * King * undertaking 
to punish all wrongs or injuries done by his subjects 
to the British, and the latter undertaking a similar 
duty of redress in the case of Formosans." 

The bold, adventurous spirits who in the seven- 
teenth century navigated European vessels to the 
Far East, were men cast in rough mould, with but 



88 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

scanty traces of the suaviter in modo, and with an 
exuberant over-supply of the for titer in re, French 
and English sailors fought each other in the Canton 
river, until, to keep them as much as possible apart, 
the Chinese had to assign them different islands as 
places of recreation. Ships of different European 
nationalities repeatedly attacked one another in 
Chinese waters, and the Chinese, who never heard of 
international law, yet recognised the fact that this 
was a breach of decorum. In 1814, during the war 
between Great Britain and the United States, a 
British frigate, totally disregarding Chinese rights, 
cruised off Canton to seize American vessels, block- 
ading some, capturing one and taking her into port, 
and, chasing another to the vicinity of Canton, took 
her, upon which the Americans in turn armed their 
boats and retook her. The Chinese tried to get the 
representative of the East India Company to send 
away the disturbing vessel, which he professed him- 
self unable to do, upon which the Chinese employed 
the only means open to them : preventing the employ- 
ment of native servants and stopping the cargo- 
boats. " The whole story is a string of paradoxes, 
— the river at Canton converted into an arena of 
belligerent operations by British and American 
ships; the Chinese remonstrating against such a 
flagrant disregard of international law, and being 
placidly told that it could not be cured and must be 
endured ; their attempts to assert their national rights 
by hampering trade ; the foreign merchants retaliat- 



BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 89 

ing by stopping the trade altogether ; and finally the 
Chinese, who were the wronged party throughout, 
being compelled to make many concessions in order 
that the foreigner might consent to resume the busi- 
ness which alone held him in Canton." 

In England great interest was felt in the expensive 
and spectacular embassy of Lord Macartney to 
Peking (1792-3), which cost the Chinese Govern- 
ment $850,000 for its entertainment. But it was a 
m^ere exchange of courtesies and did no business, the 
net result being a formal letter from the aged Em- 
peror Ch'ien Lung to the King, informing him that 
hereafter trade must be strictly limited to Canton. 
The later mission of Lord Amherst, in 18 16, was 
even less successful, being peremptorily sent away, 
because the ambassador refused to go in unprepared 
to a sudden audience with the Emperor. It is 
thought that the Chinese Government was alarmed 
and off ended by England's expansion in India, where 
" she had just won victories in regions overrun 
twenty-four years previously by the troops of the 
Middle Kingdom." The expense of this embassy 
is supposed to have been fully as great as the pre- 
vious one, and it is not surprising that it had no suc- 
cessors. It is instructive to hear that when Lord 
Amherst reached Canton, on his return journey, " he 
found that the British frigate Alceste, which was to 
carry him home, had been occupied in firing on the 
Chinese flotilla and bombarding the Chinese forts 
during his absence in the interior." The frigate had 



90 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

been assigned to a berth lower down the river than 
her commander thought suitable, upon which he 
moved leisurely up the river, and being fired upon, 
silenced the war- junks and drove the garrison from 
the forts. 

It is difficult at the beginning of the twentieth cen- 
tury to comprehend the anomalous conditions pre- 
vailing in Chinese waters at the close of the 
eighteenth century. A large number of vessels from 
many countries had come, all bent on trade. The 
Chinese have always had a commercial instinct in 
no way inferior to that of the Greek and the Jew. 
The foreign commerce was profitable to both sides. 
The Manchus, however, who had come into the 
magnificent heritage of the Chinese Empire with 
comparatively little effort, never forgot that they 
were themselves aliens, and felt an instinctive and 
not unnatural jealousy of the unknown strangers 
from foreign lands, whose future relations with the 
Chinese subjects might lead to serious complications. 
K'ang Hsi (1662-1723) and his grandson, Ch'ien 
Lung (1736- 1 796), were two of the ablest monarchs 
who had governed China for a thousand years. 
Under their rule — especially that of the latter — as 
we have already mentioned, the bounds of the 
Chinese dominions had been greatly extended. Is 
it strange that the Manchus had no intention of risk- 
ing the security of their hold upon this great empire 
for the sake of a trade which they probably regarded 
with comparative indifference, if not with absolute 



BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 91 

dislike ? How could they know what would happen 
when the Western barbarian once got a footing on 
Chinese soil? If he could not be kept out alto- 
gether, as they desired, he could at least be penned 
up in the " factories " at Canton, upon a piece of 
ground perhaps a quarter of a mile in length, with a 
promenade an hundred yards by fifty, occupied by 
barbers, fortune-tellers, and idlers. 

The Chinese, who have always been amenable to 
the most dangerous of all flattery, the inferiority of 
what was about them, entertained as it were ex 
oMcio an unquestioning conviction of their own su- 
periority to all mankind. To this feeling the 
Manchu, who certainly had no claims to it on his 
own account, was by a simple syllogism the heir. 
The Chinese had always been the foremost race 
under Heaven. The Manchus had recently demon- 
strated their superiority to the Chinese. Therefore, 
the Manchu was the Top-piece and Lord of All-un- 
der-Heaven. For this reason, it was the Manchu 
cue not merely to discountenance foreign inter- 
course and trade, but to indulge in these extravagant 
assumptions of pre-eminence by making " a striking 
show of overlordship in their dealings with every 
foreign nation, in order to produce a wholesome im- 
pression on the minds of their Chinese subjects.'' 

The view of the Chinese and the Manchus as to 
their status among the peoples of the earth was 
handsomely matched by that of the foreigners com- 
ing to China, who regarded the Chinese with open 



92 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

contempt. They knew nothing of the language, and 
cared less than they knew. An enterprising Eng- 
lishman, the first to learn Chinese, had the boldness 
to travel from Canton to Peking (communication 
being denied him at Ningpo) to lay a complaint 
against the exactions of the " Hoppo " of Canton, 
As a net result, his Chinese amanuensis, for giving 
assistance to an alien, was beheaded; the official 
complained of was degraded and the fees were re- 
duced; and the enterprising linguist was himself 
banished from China, in view of which it is not 
perhaps singular that the study of the language 
never attained popularity. 

The foreign communities in China were a law 
unto themselves, living, in the felicitous phrase of 
Dr. Williams, in a state of nature. A British wit- 
ness examined by a parliamentary committee at a 
later date, frankly testified : " We never paid any 
attention to any law of China, that I recollect." 
Despite Imperial prohibitions, constant efforts were 
made by the merchants to extend the area of their 
trade, but the officials, acting under orders from 
Peking, always thwarted them. To act as inter- 
mediaries between the officials and the foreign mer- 
chants the Chinese Government appointed a body of 
Chinese merchants who were responsible for collect- 
ing the foreign dues, for the transactions of each 
supercargo, and for the behaviour of the crew while 
in port. This was the famous " co-hong," an emi- 
nently Chinese contrivance, which, while not free 



BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 93 

from serious embarrassments and abuses, was prob- 
ably the only practicable method of attaining the end 
in view. 

It was only when a foreigner had killed a Chinese 
that the Chinese Government interfered and de- 
manded the surrender of the accused. Portuguese, 
English, and Americans, each in turn, complied 
with this requirement. In 1821, an American 
sailor named Terranova, who had inadvertently 
dropped a dish on the head of a boatwoman, was 
suffered to be dragged from his ship and taken into 
the city for '* trial," where he was publicly strangled 
at the execution ground. The next day his body was 
returned and the trade was resumed. A radical 
difficulty from the beginning was the absence of any 
foreign authority to deal with foreigners. In this 
particular case, it is a disgraceful fact that no 
notice of the affair was taken, and no remonstrance 
offered against the injustice suffered, but the Amer- 
ican Government, as Dr. Williams remarks, " still 
left the commerce, lives, and property of its citizens 
wholly unprotected at the mercy of Chinese laws 
and rulers." 

The local Chinese authorities always made a rich 
harvest out of the trade, and save in great emer- 
gencies were most reluctant to stop it. When their 
extortions were unusually onerous, the British mer- 
chants, on their part, sometimes adopted Chinese 
tactics, and took themselves off to seek other 
markets, but with slight success. Much of the 



94 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

early European intercourse with China was thor- 
oughly discreditable, whether regarded from the 
point of international interests, of international law, 
or of common sense. " There was no such person 
as a consul ; no such thing as a convention ; no such 
thing as a recognised division of jurisdiction; no 
such thing as a mutual agreement about the mode 
of doing business; no such thing as a fixed tariff, 
or harbour regulations, or police. Each side had 
to be guided by its own instincts." 

When the accumulation of differences had made 
a friendly settlement impossible. Lord Napier, irri- 
tated by the studied superciliousness of the Gover- 
nor-General, referred to him in a despatch to the 
British Government as " a presumptuous savage," 
who was guilty of " base conduct," and who cared 
nothing for commerce " so long as he received his 
pay and his plunder." In addition to this, he pub- 
lished a document in Chinese for the edification of 
those under the rule of H. E. the Governor-General, 
charging him with " ignorance and obstinacy." 
One may well agree with Captain Brinkley, from 
whom this incident is quoted, that " it might be dif- 
ficult, as between the two dignitaries, to award in 
this particular instance the palm of civilised cour- 
tesy and prudence." 

Although opium has been known to the Chinese 
for a thousand years, it was not until the early part 
of the eighteenth century that it attracted the at- 
tention of the Chinese Government, which in the 



BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 95 

year 1729 issued a drastic decree punishing the 
seller with the cangue (a heavy wooden collar) and 
with banishment, and the keeper of an opium den 
with imprisonment and strangulation. All having, 
complicity in the sale, transportation, or import of 
the drug were likewise liable to severe penalties. 

To what extent this edict was enforced is not 
known, but the opium trade went on as before under 
the name of " foreign medicine." In 1781, the East 
India Company took charge of the opium produc- 
tion in India (although after the close of that cen- 
tury it was not imported into China in their ships). 
Despite its liability to the severest penalties, the 
opium trade was carried on in British, American, 
and in Portuguese vessels, the officials being corrupt 
and the profits great. When the spread of the vice 
of smoking evoked a new Imperial edict against it, 
the only result was a great increase of smuggling, 
and the occupation by British smugglers of a small 
island, called Lintin, lying between Macao and the 
mouth of the Canton river, which became not only 
a headquarters of smugglers, but at times the resi- 
dence of the British Superintendent of Trade. The 
proceeds of the illicit sales were shared by all the 
Chinese officials concerned, from the highest down. 
Without entering into the details of this sinister 
trade, it may be said in a word that when a High 
Commissioner named Lin arrived at Canton 
(March, 1839), demanding that all opium be sur- 
rendered to him, and that bonds be given that no 



96 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

more should be imported, a decisive crisis in British 
(and all other) trade with China had been reached. 
The ensuing war between Great Britain and China 
was a turning-point in the history of China, of the 
Far East, and in some measure of the world. The 
matured judgment of one of the latest commentators 
on these events will be of interest to the reader as 
a temperate statement of the existing conditions. 
" When the above facts are reviewed, it becomes 
plain that this conflict, the first open war between 
China and a European Power, had its remote origin, 
primarily, in Great Britain's failure to organise any 
machinery for the control of her nation's trading in 
China, and, secondarily, in her objection to their 
control by Chinese machinery; and had its proxi- 
mate cause in an ill-judged attempt on the part of 
the Chinese to terminate by hasty and heroic 
measures a trade which had attained large dimen- 
sions through the corrupt connivance of her own 
officials. Morally, the Chinese were altogether in 
the right; tactically, they blundered. No nation 
ever entered the lists with better warrant, if the se- 
quence of incidents alone be considered. 

" The British Government itself, when it essayed 
to state its cause at the bar of public opinion, could 
not find more plausible counts than that its subjects 
had been insulted and injured; that its merchants 
had sustained loss, and that trade relations must be 
secured against such disturbance. Many apologists 
contended that the radical trouble lay in China's 



BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 97 

arrogant assumption of superiority to all outside 
nations, and her refusal to associate with them on 
equal terms. As to that, it must be observed that 
the pettiest Occidental nation has always claimed to 
be immeasurably superior to China, and has always 
refused to associate with her on equal terms. Her 
pretensions are paralleled and surpassed by those of 
the people that condemn them most loudly. Every 
European and every American openly asserts his 
racial eminence above the Chinese, and to class him 
with them would be an unforgivable insult. It was 
not because China set herself above Great Britain 
that the latter failed to provide means for the due 
control of her subjects trading within the former's 
territories. It was because in China's case Great 
Britain acknowledged no obligation to conform with 
international usages, never neglected in the Occi- 
dent. Neither was it because of any pride of race 
that China gradually narrowed her associations 
with foreigners until Canton became the sole lawful 
emporium of their trade. It was because their dis- 
orderly and masterful conduct had displayed them 
in the light of intolerable associates. It was not 
because she entertained any project of terminating 
their commerce and driving them from her coasts 
that she instructed Commissioner Lin to adopt the 
measures which finally involved her in war. It was 
because they had introduced into their commerce an 
unlawful element which threatened to debilitate her 
people, morally and physically, and to exhaust her 



98 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

treasure. But for opium-smuggling by British sub- 
jects, the war would never have taken place, so far 
as human intelligence can discern. History can 
have only one verdict in the matter. It is impossi- 
ble to doubt that had opium been an insignificant 
article of commerce, a country where the public con- 
science is so highly developed as it is in England 
would never have officially associated herself with 
such a traffic, or questioned China's right to crush it 
by the exercise of any measures, however drastic. 
But opium was not an insignificant article of com- 
merce. It was the lubricant which kept the whole 
machinery of England's trade running smoothly 
and satisfactorily. India owed England a large 
sum, and further bought from her every year much 
more than she sold her. To redress the balance and 
to meet payments on account of interest and prin- 
cipal, considerable sums of specie should have been 
annually transmitted from Calcutta to London. On 
the other hand, England's purchases every year 
from China greatly exceeded her sales to her, and 
consequently some millions sterling of specie should 
have been sent annually from London to Canton. 
Here it was that opium performed such a cardinal 
function. India discharged her debt to England 
with opium, and this being carried by British mer- 
chants to China England in turn discharged her 
debt to China with the drug. Thus, in fine, the 
flow of specie from India to England was avoided, 
and to complete the economic advantage the British 



BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 99 

Government of India derived a bulky item of 
revenue by taxing the opium before its shipment to 
China. If the magnitude of a sacrifice on the altar 
of international morality excuses reluctance to make 
it, there is much to extenuate England's offence. If 
the vastness of the material interests involved im- 
poses upon statecraft any obligation of circumspec- 
tion in dealing with them, the reckless precipitancy 
of Commissioner Lin's attempt to kill this giant 
commerce by a thunder-clap process of extinction 
deserved the fate which overtook it." ^ 

Perhaps it may be allowable to take a single ex- 
ception to the remark of the judicious writer just 
quoted, where he says that " but for opium-smug- 
gling by British subjects, the war would never have 
taken place, so far as human intelligence can dis- 
cern. History can have but one verdict in the 
matter." Opium-smuggling by British merchants 
undoubtedly led to the war, but, as we have seen, 
the conditions were so anomalous, and the moral in- 
capacity of each side to see the other's point of view 
so complete, that one might with equal justice say 
that sooner or later the conflict must have been 
precipitated if the poppy plant had never been dis- 
covered. (Incidentally it may be suggested that 
it is not easy to see how " history " can have a 
" verdict " upon what under different conditions 
would or would not have happened, which is at best 
only matter of probable opinion.) This is made the 
*" Japan and China," vol. ii., pp. 12-15. 



lOO CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

more obvious because in less than fifteen years after 
the treaty of 1842 the complaints on the part of the 
British against China had so accumulated, with ag- 
gravated and mordant concomitants, that another 
war was inevitable. That a lucrative traffic does not 
tend to clear the moral vision of those who partici- 
pate in it is by no means a novel truth. Opium- 
smuggling neutralised the stern edict of 1729 
against the drug, and but for that smuggling there 
is no obvious reason why China might not have as 
successfully freed herself from the curse as Japan, 
who strangled the serpent before it had grown 
strong enough to strike. That opium has been a 
greater evil to China than war, famine, and pesti- 
lence combined, although probable, is not indeed 
susceptible of apodeictic proof. In the book already 
mentioned, called " China's Only Hope," Governor- 
General Chang Chih-tung has a chapter entitled 
" Cast Out the Poison," in which he declares that 
" opium has spread with frightful rapidity and 
heartrending results through the Provinces. Mil- 
lions upon millions have been struck down with the 
plague. To-day, it is running like wildfire. In its 
swift, deadly course it is spreading devastation 
everywhere, wrecking the minds and eating away 
the strength and wealth of its victims. . . . 
Unless something is soon done to arrest this awful 
scourge in its devastating march, the Chinese people 
will be transformed into satyrs and devils. This 
is the present condition of our country." After 



BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH lOi 

prolonged agitation of the subject on the part of 
those who insist that national acts must take account 
of moral principles, the House of Commons in May, 
1906, which had twice before passed similar votes 
by small majorities, adopted, by unanimous vote, a 
resolution that the export of opium from India to 
China is morally indefensible, and requested the 
Government of India to put an end to it. The only 
logical outcome of this gradual change of front is 
the ultimate cessation of the trade, and aid given to 
China in freeing herself from its eflFects. At present 
the Chinese Government is engaged in an apparently 
sincere attempt to put an end to the smoking, the 
sale, and the cultivation of opium, but probably with- 
out an adequate conception of the almost but not 
wholly insuperable obstacles. 

From the signing of the treaty of Nanking, in 
1842, to the close of the century, amid all the per- 
mutations and combinations of politics and policies, 
there was never a time when China and the Western 
Powers understood one another. Many foreigners 
in China were autocratic, dictatorial, and openly 
contemptuous of the rights of the Chinese. The 
latter, and more especially the ruling Manchus, were 
narrow of vision, relatively ignorant, conceited, ob- 
structive, obstinate, and insincere, in Lord Elgin's 
phrase, " yielding nothing to reason and everything 
to fear." They had no wish, and no reason to 
wish, to come into the " sisterhood of nations," and 
when forced to join the happy family they employed 



102 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

their wonderful talents in successfully playing off 
one Power against another. 

Fresh troubles constantly arose, each one being 
generally settled by opening other ports, which fre- 
quently led to more troubles to be adjusted by yet 
more ports. Adequately to treat of the complex 
causes of these phenomena would of itself require a 
small volume.^ Western Powers had sent to China 
far too many men of the type of Sir Harry Parkes 
(whose statue adorns the Shanghai water-front), 
who mistrusted all Chinese and who would put up 
with no " nonsense " from obstructive officials ; and 
far too few of the Lord Elgin variety, whose sim- 
ple rule was never to make an unjust demand, and 
never to retreat from a demand once made. 

In the remarkable articles (already quoted) pub- 
lished by Sir Robert Hart immediately after the 
close of the siege of Peking, the author, whose ex- 
perience in China and whose knowledge of the Chi- 
nese point of view is altogether unequalled, devotes 
some paragraphs to an effort to make his readers 
understand what that point of view is. As no other 
foreigner in China can speak with equal authority 
we cannot, perhaps, do better than to quote these 
significant sentences, observing parenthetically that 
he has (doubtless for reasons) altogether ignored 

s Those who seek a fuller presentation of this topic are re- 
ferred to chapters ix,, x. and xi, of Holcombe's "Real Chi- 
nese Question " (reprinted in England in cheap form under 
the title: "China's Past and Future"), and to the first eight 
chapters of the author's " China in Convulsion." 



BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 103 

many important items, such as the fixing for China 
by the Powers of a low and practically unalterable 
rate of import duty ; the destructive effects on China 
of the commercial intrusion of foreigners; and es- 
pecially the unbridled territorial aggression by 
which nearly the whole seaboard of the Empire, as 
well as the Provinces bordering on the great Yang- 
tzu River, were either the present or the intended 
" sphere of influence " of some European govern- 
ment, or actually " leased " to them, from Kuang 
Chou Wan and Kowlung in the far south, to Kiao 
Chou, Wei Hai Wei, and Port Arthur in the north 
— not a port being left in which the Chinese could 
mobilise their own navy! 

The position which the Chinese take up, said Sir 
IRobert Hart in 1900 (and the case is very much 
stronger now), may be said to be this: "We did 
not invite you foreigners here, you crossed the seas 
of your own accord and more or less forced your- 
selves on us. We generously permitted the trade 
you were at first satisfied with, but what return did 
you make ? To the trade we sanctioned you added 
opium-smuggling, and when we tried to stop it you 
made war on us ! We do not deny that Chinese con- 
sumers kept alive the demand for the drug, but both 
consumption and importation were illegal and pro- 
hibited ; when we found it was ruining our country 
and depleting our treasury, we vainly attempted to 
induce you to abandon the trade, and we had then 
to take action against it ourselves. War ensued; 



104 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

but we were no warriors, and you won, and then 
dictated treaties which gave you Hongkong and 
opened several ports, while opium still remained con- 
traband. Several years of peaceful intercourse fol- 
lowed, and then Hongkong began to trouble us; it 
was originally ceded to be a careening-place for ships 
simply, but, situated on the direct route to the new 
ports, it grew into an emporium, and also, close to 
our coast and rivers, it became a smuggling centre ; 
in your treaties you had undertaken a certain control 
of any junk traffic that should spring up, but when 
that traffic became considerable you dropped the 
promised control, and our revenue suffered. 

" Originally uninhabited, Hongkong now became 
the home of numerous Chinese settlers, many of 
them outlaws who dare not live on the mainland; 
these became British subjects, and you gave the Brit- 
ish flag to their junks, which were one day British 
and another day Chinese, just as it suited their pur- 
pose ; and out of this came the * Arrow ' war, fol- 
lowed by new treaties, additional ports, legalised 
opium, and fresh stipulations, in their turn the 
cause of fresh troubles. Whether it was that we 
granted you privileges or that you exacted conces- 
sions, you have treated the slightest mistakes as vio- 
lations of treaty rights, and, instead of showing 
yourselves friendly and considerate, you insult us 
by charges of bad faith and demand reparation 
and indemnities. Your legalised opium has been a 
curse in every Province into which it penetrated, 



BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 105 

and your refusal to limit or decrease the import has 
forced us to attempt a dangerous remedy; we have 
legalised native opium — not because we approve of 
it — but to compete with and drive out the foreign 
drug, and it is expelling it, and when we have only 
the native production to deal with, and thus have the 
business in our own hands, we hope to stop the 
habit in our own way. Your missionaries have 
been everywhere teaching good lessons, and benev- 
olently opening hospitals and dispensing medicine 
for the relief of the sick and the afflicted, but wher- 
ever they go trouble goes with them, and instead 
of the welcome their good intentions merit, locali- 
ties and officials turn against them; when called 
on to indemnify them for losses, we find to our as- 
tonishment that it is exactions of would-be mil- 
lionaires we have to satisfy! Your people are 
everywhere extra-territorialised ; but instead of a 
grateful return for this ill-advised stipulation, they 
appear to act as if there were no laws in China, and 
this encourages native lawlessness and makes con- 
stant difficulties for every native official. 

" You have demanded and obtained the privilege 
of trading from port to port on the coast, and now 
you want the inland waters thrown open to your 
steamers. Your newspapers vilify our officials and 
our Government, and, translated into Chinese, circu- 
late very mischievous reading; but yet they have 
their uses, for, by their threats and suggestions, 
they warn us what you may some day do, and so 



io6 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

help us indirectly, although that does not conduce 
to mutual respect and liking. All these things 
weaken official authority — therefore the official 
world is against you; and they hurt native traders 
— ^therefore the trading classes are indignant. 
What countries give aliens the extra-territorial 
status? What countries allow aliens to compete in 
their coasting trade? What countries throw open 
their inland waters to other flags ? And yet all these 
things you compel us to grant you ! Why can you 
not treat us as you treat others? Were you to do 
so, you would find us friendly enough, and there 
would be an end of this everlasting bickering and 
these continually recurring wars ; really you are too 
short-sighted, and you are forcing us to arm in 
self-defence, and giving us grudges to pay off in- 
stead of benefits to requite." 

The Golden Rule of Christ teaches us to do to 
others as we would have them do to us. In ac- 
cordance with the usual negative forms of expres- 
sion and the passive temperament of the Chinese, 
the Confucian dictum was not to do unto others 
as we would not have them do unto us. 

The version of " David Harum," to do to the 
other man what he wants to do to you, and to do it 
■first, is that upon which Western Powers in China 
have for the most part acted. The time has now 
come when this is no longer possible. It is im- 
perative that there should be a radical readjustment 



BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 107 

of the relations between the West and the East. 
The mutual suspicions and antagonisms of the past 
must be replaced by reciprocal enlightenment, 
friendliness, and confidence. By what means this 
is to be accomplished, is one of the largest and most 
important of living questions. 



VI. 

THE NEW FAR EAST AND THE NEW CHINA 

The British Empire is in a way the modern rep- 
resentative of the ancient Roman Empire, not merely 
because in a geographical, commercial, and financial 
sense the first meridian runs through its capital, 
but because it is the centre of a ganglion of inter- 
ests which literally embrace the globe. For this 
reason, the intelligent reader of a great London 
daily will be able to learn the conditions prevailing 
in lands, to use the phrase of the old geographies, 
civilised, semi-civilised, and savage. The reader 
of the most comprehensive American journal will, 
however, as a rule derive from its columns very little 
co-ordinated information about the world at large, 
and such items as are given (owing to the exigen- 
cies of an " afternoon edition " which appears about 
II a. m., and an " evening edition " which is 
hawked about the streets at 3 p. m.) are largely un- 
classified. Intelligence of a revolt on a Russian 
man-of-war is preceded by an account of a subway 
accident, say at Seventieth street, New York, and 
followed by a lurid narrative of an earthquake in 
Valparaiso, and also of the efforts of a man in the 
Bowery to sever his wife's jugular vein with a 

108 



NEWi FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 109 

table-knife. This is not, we are told, because 
American journalists are unenterprising, but be- 
cause the American demand for information in re- 
gard to what goes on abroad is homeopathic. 

It may be said in general that there is in the 
United States no class of men with a broad and 
funded knowledge of anything outside of our own 
national interests, more particularly of those lands 
the languages of which we do not understand. We 
are without anything analogous to the retired civil 
service men of Great Britain, who, taken in the 
aggregate, have concerning a large part of the 
world a knowledge which is exact, comprehensive, 
and universal. Americans, on the contrary, may 
rather be said to entertain what Bismarck termed 
"a vast and varied ignorance" of anything and 
everything at a distance. For much of their infor- 
mation regarding many foreign lands Americans are 
indebted to missionaries, who, as a rule, are men and 
women of culture, having a familiarity with the lan- 
guages and the peoples possessed by no others, and 
who are not infrequently almost the only permanent 
foreign residents of the countries to which they are 
sent. To them merchants, travellers, and especially 
newspaper correspondents, are under the greatest 
obligation. 

Our British cousins have long been aware of the 
fact, which Americans have as yet scarcely discov- 
ered at all, that the opening years of the twentieth 
century find a large part of the world in a transi- 



no CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

tional state. Following the Boer war, the most 
delicate problems of readjustment tax the utmost 
skill of the wisest men in Great Britain. Railways 
are opening up Africa, but with them are also 
opened up land questions, labour questions, questions 
of monopolies in gold and in diamonds, race ques- 
tions, and questions of the relations of the different 
European Powers to one another. There is al- 
ready a new South Africa. When the Cape to 
Cairo railway shall have been completed, there will 
be indeed a new Africa. There is already a new 
Egypt — an Egypt, the reclamation of which is one 
of the most spectacular and most hopeful events 
in the recent history of mankind. Can it be that 
this is that ancient, that mysterious, that extinct 
land, of which our Lowell wrote ? — 

"There sits drear Egypt 'mid beleaguering sands 
Half-woman and half-beast. 
The burnt-out torch within her mouldering hands 
Which once lit all the East" 

But there is a cloud hanging over cloudless 
Egypt. The reflex effect of the great Russo-Jap- 
anese war has penetrated even here. There is a 
danger of which British statesmen give most em- 
phatic warning. The fanaticism of the Moslems is 
astir, and while fully recognising the unparalleled 
advantages of British rule, they are yet religiously 
hypnotised by the Osman whom they despise and 
hate. If all North Africa were once more ablaze 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA iii 

with a '' holy war/' who knows what might not 
happen ? 

Slowly and not with observation there is com- 
ing to be a new Turkey. The " unspeakable Turk," 
who, in Freeman's phrase, has been merely " camp- 
ing in Europe " for five hundred years, must sooner 
or later recross the Bosphorus. Then what? Cab- 
inets and Berlin Congresses may vote as they like, 
and a generation later they may be altogether for- 
gotten in the city where they had so done. The 
real principles upon which the New Turkey must 
be built will be those — and those only — which by 
American missionaries have been taught in the cities 
and the obscure mountain villages of European and 
of Asiatic Turkey, and have been burned into the in- 
tellectual, the moral, and the spiritual consciousness 
of the students of many races in polyglot Robert 
College, Constantinople. There is indeed to be a 
New Turkey when all this weary seed-sowing will 
be perceived not to have been in vain. 

In that great continental museum of nations and 
races which we compendiously term India, great 
changes are taking place. Problems which are even 
more complex than elsewhere confound the ablest 
rulers, many of whom recognise that in the general 
prevalence of Christianity is the only solution. The 
British Government, which less than a century ago 
deported the first American missionaries as poten- 
tial anarchists, is now the largest supporter of 
Christian schools. 



112 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY. 

On the day following the first victory of the Jap- 
anese the Indian vernacular press contained a vivid 
account of the battle, with the brief but significant 
comment: "And we too are brown men!" The 
restlessness of the Indian peoples became more pro- 
nounced, and the development of the swadeshi or 
patriotic " India for the Indians " movement was 
reported, the outcome of which no one is wise 
enough to foresee. Mohammedan India, it should 
not be forgotten, is powerfully influenced by the 
unrest of Egypt. The growing sense of a certain 
unity where heretofore there has been nothing but 
segregation, is the promise and potency of a New 
India. 

Many volumes have been written upon the new 
Japan, but it is doubtful whether the mere perusal 
of the most detailed descriptions can give anyone 
a due impression of the magnitude and the scope 
of the change which the past fifty years have wit- 
nessed in that Empire, a metamorphosis which may 
be likened to the transformation of a junk in mid- 
ocean into a modern steamer. The intense patri- 
otism of the Japanese, their openness of mind, their 
indomitable perseverance, their genius for detail, 
their talent for prevision and for provision — all 
these in an Oriental people are bewildering and 
amazing. Moreover, during their recent war they 
displayed one gift which Occidentals — most of all, 
Americans — ^have never possessed, the talent for 
holding their tongues. Hundreds of thousands of 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 113 

Japanese knew perfectly well where Admiral Togo's 
fleet was concealed, but, like " Bre'r Rabbit," they 
all " lay low and ain't sayin' nuffin'." If they won 
world victories, instead of boasting of them in flu- 
ent and florid phrase, the facts were recited with no 
waste of adverbs and adjectives, and all the credit 
was attributed to their ancestors and to the ex- 
alted virtues of their Emperor. The modest and 
truthful despatches of a Japanese general or ad- 
miral might have been drafted by Julius Csesar in 
Gaul. 

That there is another and a very different side 
to the shield, is known to everyone who is familiar 
with the Far East. Many who are infatuated with 
" Great Japan " are cured by a single visit to Tokio, 
with its Yoshiwara, a city within a city, where 
" regulated vice " attracts no more attention than 
tea-houses and cherry trees in rural districts. When 
the traveller through " beautiful Japan " sees half- 
naked women and almost entirely naked men stand- 
ing together all day in a broiling sun on a platform 
lashed to steamers, tossing up baskets of coal for 
most trifling pay, it is hard to realise that this race 
is not on a level with the Malays, with whom they 
may perhaps have affinities. 

No such sight, even among the big-footed boat- 
women, could ever be seen in China. In the mere 
work of administration there may be a sense in 
which the Japanese do almost everything better 
than some peoples who might be named do almost 



114 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

anything/ Japan is undoubtedly one of the two 
most efficient countries in the world. As between 
the Japanese and the Chinese there is as yet not 
even room for comparison, for China and real effi- 
ciency have never made each other's acquaintance. 
But there is, so far as appears, a general agreement 
among those who know both races well, that mor- 
ally, and especially in truthfulness and in commercial 
integrity, the Japanese are greatly the inferior. To 
disguise facts like these is worse than idle, for they 
add to, and in part constitute, the difficulty of the 
Far Eastern problem. In view of the antiquity and 
the solidarity of the Chinese Empire, it is obvious 
that it is not a land where innovations are likely to 
be welcome. In this respect it stands at a great re- 
move from Japan, which, owing to China a part of 
its language, its literature, its philosophy, its prin- 
cipal religion and arts, has never had any rooted 
prejudice against adopting and adapting what is 
foreign, but which very soon becomes effectively 
naturalised. With the exception of Indian Bud- 
dhism, China may be said to have taken next to 
nothing from abroad, and to suit its Chinese envi- 
ronment Buddhism had to be essentially modified. 

1 For a comprehensive exposition of Japan's administrative 
achievements, the reader is referred to " Great Japan, A Study 
in National Efficiency/' by Alfred Stead, London, 1906, and 
" The Real Triumph of Japan," by Dr. Louis L. Seaman, New 
York, 1906. For a criticism of Japan's forcible exploitation 
of Korea and the Koreans, see " The New Far East," by 
Thos. F. Millard, New York, 1906, and "The Passing of 
Korea," by Homer B. Hulbert, New York, 1906. 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 115 

The Nestorians who entered China in the sixth 
century of our era, and the mediaeval Roman Cath- 
olics of the thirteenth century, eventually disap- 
peared with all their adherents like pools of water 
evaporated in the desert. 

Representatives of the toughest and most unmal- 
leable of races, after we know not how many ages 
of striving against fate, have long been under- 
going slow digestion in China, until, having sold 
their sacred scriptures and their synagogue, and 
with only a sad memory of a long, silent struggle, 
the Jews in the Chinese Empire are upon the point 
of extinction. 

The Chinese, as we have seen, found themselves 
invaded, much against their will, by many bands 
of foreigners, who demanded concessions of various 
kinds, with the actual or implied threat of force 
never out of mind. 

China was in no condition to fight. Its " army " 
was little better than an ill-organised, ill-paid po- 
lice force, ineffective even against a widespread re- 
bellion like that of the T'ai P'ings, and wholly 
incapable of standing against a respectable foreign 
contingent. Li Hung-chang had for a long time a 
large corps of foreign-drilled troops. China grad- 
ually gathered a navy, which in the last half of the 
" eighties '' was supposed by many who thought 
that they knew to be a formidable fleet. The war 
with Japan, in which that navy was at a blow extin- 
guished, put an end to the superstition. The re- 



ii6 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

newed exhibition of China's real weakness in 1900 
made a certain impression upon the unimpression- 
able conglomerate which collectively we call China; 
and led the way for a more or less half-hearted 
effort at " reform," meaning by that term, for the 
most part, not renovation, but merely a rearrange- 
ment of existing materials. During all these years 
there was a small but earnest body of Chinese, 
largely those who had been educated abroad, to- 
gether with some of the more open-minded younger 
men at home, who gave themselves with unremitting 
zeal to preparing the way for the New China. In 
the reaction (September, 1898) following the Em- 
peror's premature reform decrees, six of this number 
died as martyrs, beheaded by Imperial command, 
protesting to the last that by reason of their death 
the cause which they represented was all the more 
certain of ultimate success, and that, though they 
were slain, multitudes of others would arise to take 
their place. But it was the overthrow of the land 
and naval forces of Russia by Japan in 1904-5 that 
gave its greatest and decisive impulse to reform in 
China, which has since then set in like a strong 
tide, but with so many eddies and cross-currents 
as to show that there must be much tacking of the 
junk of State if it is not to be wrecked. More 
especially since 1900 a series of important changes 
in army administration has been in progress in 
China. Of these Governor-General Yuan Shih-k'ai 
has (until recently) been the leader, his well-drilled, 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 117 

well-paid, well-uniformed, well-fed, and well- 
housed soldiers far surpassing any others. In the 
autumn of 1905 a great military review, with ma- 
noeuvres, was executed on the plain of Chihli, tO' 
which foreign military attaches and correspondents 
were invited, and where they were duly impressed by 
the evidences of a revolutionary change in Chinese 
military effectiveness. 

During the succeeding year similar exercises 
took place in northern Honan. It is planned to 
unify the hitherto distinct provincial forces into one 
great national army, and to raise the number of 
troops to at least half a million. At present Chi- 
nese soldiers are by no means what they may be 
expected to become a few years hence. It is rec- 
ognised both by foreigners and by Chinese that 
evolutions of this kind bear a somewhat remote 
likeness to the sudden and unexpected emergencies 
of actual war. Yet those who have had the opportu- 
nity of observing the contrast between the Chinese 
army which judiciously fled before the Japanese in 
1894, and the troops of to-day, see not only change, 
but thoroughgoing transformation. In view of the 
present military outlook, all suggestions as to the 
" partition of China " have " folded their wings 
like the Arabs." The always strong national feel- 
ing of the Chinese is now being supplemented by 
what appear to be the germs of real patriotism. This 
is at present accompanied by an intense anti-foreign 
wave, due to the combined effect of the causes 



Ii8 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY^ 

which have been mentioned. Injuries and wrongs 
which were formerly either unknown or unnoticed 
are now promptly bruited abroad and discussed in 
the tea-shops and in the press with marked effect 
upon the hitherto vague and ill-defined Chinese 
public sentiment. 

Imperial birthdays are now celebrated with 
showy processions of uniformed school-children and 
students, who are perhaps (as at Tientsin in the 
autumn of 1905) gathered to the number of sev- 
eral thousand and addressed by the Governor-Gen- 
eral or other high officials on their duties to their 
country. A leading Chinese journal in Shanghai 
prints a page in English, headed by the motto: 
" Ducit Amor Patriae." Telegraphs, which were 
generally introduced into China more than twenty- 
five years ago, have greatly aided in increasing the 
power of the Central Government over the formerly 
semi-independent " Viceroys," or Governors-Gen- 
eral. Telephone systems have been established in 
several Chinese cities, notably in Peking, where 
they are used for administrative purposes. Elec- 
tric lights are now seen in the capital, where but 
recently tiny bean-oil lamps diffused a pervading 
darkness, and they are also found in many other 
cities, even in the far interior. 

It is extremely unfortunate that of the two initial 
cases of the introduction of railways into China, 
one was accompanied by such a palpable and gross 
breach of faith as would, had it been committed by 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 119 

the Chinese, have made the press of many lands 
ring with indignation. Under a concession for a 
horse-railway (steam being expressly barred) for 
the ten miles and more from Shanghai to Wu-sung 
at the mouth of the Huang-p'u river, upon which 
Shanghai stands, a steam engine was surreptitiously 
smuggled in. Its use instantly led to riots of a 
serious and determined nature. The case soon be- 
came a diplomatic one, and to end it the Chinese 
Government bought the line outright, but was 
compelled to run it for a year, which it did 
faithfully. At the expiration of that period the 
Government had the railway torn up and shipped to 
Formosa, where it became the nucleus of a line 
which was extended later. Is it difficult to com- 
prehend the feelings of the Chinese at being tricked 
in this manner? The result was to confirm Chi- 
nese suspicion, enhance Chinese watchfulness, and 
to postpone for a long time the railway opening 
of China. 

The short line from the K^ai P*ing coal mines east 
of Tientsin, on the other hand, was allowed to 
evolve by a natural process, and was withal con- 
ducted by the manager, Mr. Kinder, with so much 
skill and tact that no serious opposition was en- 
countered. In 1897 it was at length extended from 
Tientsin to Peking, incidentally ruining both the 
boat traffic on the Peiho and the city of T'ung 
Chou (twelve miles east of Peking), which made 
the mistake of driving it away in haste, only to 



I20 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

repent later in dust and ashes when there was no 
help. During the late war the heavy and unexam- 
pled profits accruing from the Government rail- 
ways, amounting at times to perhaps $500,000 (sil- 
ver) a month, tended to put a final quietus upon the 
sentimental and other objections hitherto entertained 
by many of the people, who appreciated the advan- 
tages of the improved facilities, and were prompt 
to avail themselves of the same. 

A brief notice of the railways already in operation 
in China will convey an idea of the extent of the 
changes which they imply. 

(i) Tientsin to Peking and T'ung Chou; Tien- 
tsin to Newchwang. Total length, about 540 
miles. Built by a British company, and in part 
mortgaged to British bondholders. 

(2) Shanghai to Wu-sung; Shanghai to Suchow 
and Wusieh. Total present length, 90 miles. To 
be extended as much farther to Nanking. Built 
by a British company. 

(3) The *' Peking Syndicate '^ (Anglo-Italian) 
railway. Bought by the Chinese Government. Tao- 
kou to Ch'ing-hua chen (Honan). Total length, 
89J miles. 

(4) Peking to Hankow (Ching-Han). Total 
length, 1,215 kilometers— 760 miles; branch line to 
Fang-shan, 9 miles; K'ai-feng-fu to Ho-nan fu 
(not yet opened), 136 miles. Franco-Belgian cap- 
ital. 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 121 

(5) Ts'ing Tao to Chi-nan fu (Shantung Prov- 
ince). Length, 247 miles. German. 

(6) Manchurian Hne. Harbin to Port Arthur, 
about 400 miles, controlled to Kuan-ch'eng tzu by 
Japanese, from there to Harbin by Russians. 

(7) Chinese lines: Manchuria. Chin-chou to 
Hsin-men t'un, 173 miles; thence to Moukden. 

(8) Borders of Kiangsi and Hunan Provinces. 
P'ing-hsiang to Li-ling, 56^ miles. 

(9) Canton to Fatshan and Samshui, 31 miles. 
(This was a part of the Yueh Han line, the conces- 
sion for which was given to an American syndicate. ) 
A short line of railway to connect the preceding 
with the city of San-ning (Hsin-ning hsien) is mak- 
ing rapid progress in construction. At its northern 
terminus, on the southern bank of the West river, a 
mart is to be built to be called " New Town." The 
capital for this road was subscribed by Chinese in 
America and Australia, and the whole work of con- 
struction is carried on by them. Among these Chi- 
nese capitalists are many earnest Christians, and in 
drawing up plans for the New Town they reserved 
a special plot of ground near the centre, where a 
large church and school are to be built for the use 
of the Christian portion of the community. The 
streets are to be laid out like those of the cities and 
towns of the United States. The Director of Rail- 
ways in the Province of Fukien has recently made 
a tour to the settlements of his fellow provincials 



122 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

in Singapore, Penang, and Java, and has secured a 
subscription of some million taels to form a joint- 
stock company to link with those of the adjacent 
Provinces the Fukien railways, which will be con- 
trolled not by the Government, nor yet by officials, 
but by a board of directors. 

(10) Swatow to Ch'ao-chou fu (Kuangtung 
Province). Length, 23 J miles, or, with sidetracks, 
30 miles. 

(11) Peking to Kalgan. Completed to the en- 
trance to the Nankow Pass. It is meant to extend 
this later to Urga and Kiakhta, and to connect with 
the trans-Siberian line. 

(12) Chen-ting fu to T'ai-yuan fu (Shansi 
Province) narrow gauge. Financed by the Russo- 
Chinese Bank. About one-half, or 80 miles, com- 
pleted. 

(13) French lines: Hanoi (Tongking) to Yun- 
nan fu, the capital city of Yun-nan Province. From 
Lao-kai, the Chinese frontier, to Yun-nan fu is about 
298 miles. Hanoi to Nan-ning fu in Kuangtung. 
These are as yet incomplete and are only partly in 
Chinese territory. 

The British are beginning a line from Kowlung, 
opposite Hongkong, to Canton. The Portuguese, in 
conjunction with the Chinese, are building another 
from Macao to Canton. A great number of other 
railways are projected, some of them actually be- 
gun, by the Chinese, as from Shanghai to Hang- 
chow; Kiukiang to Nan-ch'ang fu, etc. It is es- 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 123 

pecially desired to connect Hankow with the dis- 
tant and inaccessible Province of Ssu-ch'uan, but 
this is recognised as being impracticable without 
foreign help, which the Chinese positively decline. 
There is a short railway (26 miles) connecting with 
the Peking to the Hankow line and leading to the 
Western Imperial Tombs. 

On account of the lack of capital, of competent 
Chinese engineers, and of experienced (not to say 
honest) administrators, no confidence is yet felt 
by foreigners in China in the practicability of de- 
veloping China on these lines; but under present 
conditions China must either be developed thus or 
remain undeveloped, for foreign domination or in- 
terference the Chinese will no longer tolerate. Their 
evident wish — and intention — is to buy out as 
speedily as possible all foreign " rights " and thus 
make an end of them. 

It is obvious at a glance that the combined effect 
of the present, and far more of the impending, 
changes in intercommunication and transportation 
in China will be far-reaching and will increase in 
social, economic, and political importance every 
year. The routes already in operation pass 
through nine out of the eighteen Provinces in 
China, and through three others in Manchuria. 

The navigation of the inland waters of China by 
steam vessels has within the past few years been 
greatly extended, with obvious advantages and 
equally patent evils. The inspection of boilers is 



124 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

infrequent and at times perfunctory; danger and 
accidents from overcrowding and from careless 
steering are serious and constant; the injury to 
river banks in time of high water by the wash of 
steamers is so great as to lead to frequent riots; 
and, especially on the West river of the Kuantung 
Province, the number of boatmen thrown out of em- 
ployment is given as an excuse for the alarming 
increase of river piracy, involving the loss of more 
than one foreign life, and the frequent murder of 
considerable numbers of Chinese. 

The Chinese Government has adopted the plan of 
opening inland " ports '' at various places along the 
line of railways, and a considerable number in Man- 
churia, in order the better to resist the aggressions 
of any single Power by enlisting the interest of all 
the rest. Each new " port " is an additional inlet 
and gateway for new ideas, and while the result may 
not be an unmixed good, the change in an important 
step in advance. 

The Chinese postal system is not yet ten years 
old, but in the last half of that period it has been 
greatly improved and extended until it now con- 
nects almost all the cities of the Empire. During 
the year 1905 the number of offices was increased by 
307, and the present rate of increase is about one 
office per day; there are perhaps 2,000 in all. The 
number of articles handled increased in 1905 from 
66J millions to 76 millions, and the parcels from 
771,000 to over a million; while the money-order 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 125 

transactions grew from half a million taels to 820,- 
000. The social, educational, and political value 
of this great innovation is beyond estimation. 

Industrial institutes have appeared in many of 
the chief cities, where different arts and crafts are 
taught to workmen of the most unpromising char- 
acter, some of them children, others beggars picked 
up from the street, a class for whom there has hith- 
erto been no smallest ray of hope. These establish- 
ments are found in Peking and in the capitals of 
many of the larger Provinces, such as Suchow, 
Hangchow, Chi-nan fu, and Ch'eng-tu fu in re- 
mote Ssu-ch'uan. 

Similar enterprises for the helpless poor, men and 
women, boys and girls, have been opened in unoc- 
cupied granaries, temples, etc., under the charge of 
a kind of Bureau of Charities (itself an unheard-of 
thing), the machinery, teachers, etc., being fre- 
quently imported from Japan. The abundant pat- 
ronage of these places shows that they are meet- 
ing a deep need. 

Another branch of the same general plan is that 
of instructing the prisoners in common jails. This 
reform is now well-rooted, and is a wonderful con- 
trast to the previous indifference and neglect. Pris- 
oners well-dressed, well-fed, and well-guarded are 
taught to weave rugs, run sewing-machines for 
leather work, make boots and shoes, stamp Chinese 
writing paper, do carpenter and iron work, to print, 
to dye, and many other things. In an institution 



126 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

of this kind at Tientsin there is a lecture hall where 
the prisoners are required to attend daily and listen 
to exhortation and instruction. Large sums have 
been invested in these enterprises, which in time will 
yield abundant return. 

For the display of the results of these and other 
manual-training schools, industrial exhibits have 
been opened. By degrees this grows into a stand- 
ing exposition of whatever may be most noteworthy 
in the output of a place. Such an one has for some 
years been opened in Tientsin, with an average at- 
tendance of visitors (men and women on separate 
days) of 2,000 a day. On the latest of these oc- 
casions the show was specially noteworthy and 
promising. Prizes were distributed and certificates 
bestowed with great pomp and circumstance, being 
handsomely framed, carried in yellow chairs, and 
placed for a fixed time on exhibition. It is in- 
tended to hold such displays in every large city, 
with a view to a National and after some years to 
an International Exposition. 

Manufactures of many kinds are beginning here 
and there also to appear, generally under the pat- 
ronage of the Board of Commerce, which is inva- 
riably careful to require, under pain of forfeiture 
of the whole, that no stock shall be sold to a for- 
eigner. Cotton mills and silk filatures have been 
established in Shanghai for many years, with per- 
haps forty thousand employees — largely women and 
girls — and are spreading into the interior, but many 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 127 

of them have not been financially successful. In 
the interior improved wooden looms are being in- 
troduced from Japan. Experts from Hangchow 
are now teaching the natives of Shantung how to 
spin and weave the silk of that Province, hitherto 
used only for the comparatively coarse product 
known as " pongee," into the most beautiful fabrics, 
rivalling those of Central China. Soap-making, can- 
dle factories, glass-works, knitting companies and 
the like are found in different parts of the Empire, 
but for the lack of capital, experience, and mutual 
confidence these enterprises often come to nothing. 
A company has been organised to use steam-trawlers 
of English make, with nets of English pattern. 
From a factory in Shanghai there is a considerable 
sale of pianos to Chinese, who also use thousands 
of bicycles. An attempt has been made at a general 
introduction of uniformed police and street-clean- 
ing, which works well in some large centres, while 
in others, for lack of intelligent supervision, it has 
either come to nothing or has been used as a means 
of extortion. In a city in Chih-li where nobody 
speaks or understands English, sentries with rifles 
suddenly began to march up and down (there be- 
ing nothing to guard) while staring notices ordered 
travellers to go : " To and fro by the left." Ag- 
ricultural reform has been begun, especially arbor- 
iculture, barren hillsides being planted with pines, 
and mulberry trees for feeding silk-worms imported 
into Shantung from the south. As yet, native in- 



128 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

ertia being too strong, real agricultural progress 
has been but slight. A new Chamber of Commerce 
in Canton is formed of two and seventy different 
guilds, proposing to open a bank, to issue notes, and 
to imitate foreign manufactures with a view to 
driving foreign trade out of the country. Many 
important improvements have been made in the 
laws of the Empire, some of the more barbarous 
punishments being abolished, but it is by no means 
certain that these reforms have everywhere gone 
into effect. 

But the greatest of all the many changes in China 
is the definite abolition by Imperial Edict (Septem- 
ber, 1905) of the old-style examination, and the 
introduction of Western learning; an innovation 
which, whether as regards its radical nature in over- 
turning the precedents of nearly two millenniums, 
the many millions whom it affects, or its future re- 
sults, may when complete justly be reckoned among 
the most remarkable and decisive intellectual revo- 
lutions in the history of mankind. It must be un- 
derstood that as yet the merest beginning has been 
made, and that there is and long will be a conserv- 
ative party which, if it were able, would gladly 
move the shadow on the dial-plate backward. That, 
however, is out of the question — ^the " eight-legged " 
examination " essay " is gone forever. In China 
so much depends upon the individual incumbent of 
each post that at first sight the status would appear 
to be almost chaotic. Provincial " Colleges " were 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 129 

opened when there were neither competent in- 
structors nor qualified students, the whole scheme 
resembling a pyramid standing upon its apex. 
Many Japanese teachers were invited (and many 
more came of their own initiative) because they 
were nearer at hand and cheaper than any others, 
and especially because they are Orientals. 

China has at last been undisguisedly sitting at 
the feet of her age-long pupil, and the process of 
the " Japanisation " of China has been well ad- 
vanced and will go yet further. 

But in time the Chinese will assert themselves, 
as they always have done, and will manage their 
own affairs — as they are abundantly competent to 
do. There has never been any love lost between 
these so different races, which, whatever their for- 
mal alliances, will almost inevitably tend more and 
more to drift apart. 

It is in the metropolitan Province of Chihli, under 
Governor-General Yuan Shi-k'ai, that the greatest 
educational advance has been made. According to 
a memorial from him, which appeared during the 
year 1906, there were in operation within his juris- 
diction the following institutions: 

The Imperial Pei Yang University at Tientsin. 

The High College at Pao-ting fu. 

The Imperial Army Medical College. 

The Industrial High School, the Agricultural 
High Schools, besides Agricultural and Industrial 
Primary Schools to the number of 21. 



130 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

The Telegraph College. The School of Draw- 
ing and Mathematics. 

The Normal High Schools and Normal and other 
Training Schools, 89. 

Middle Schools, 2y, 

Advanced Schools, 182. 

Primary Schools, 4,162, 

The Women's Normal School* 

Girls' Schools, 40. 

iYamen-runner's Schools, 18. 

There are two kindergarten schools in Tientsin; 
nineteen half-day schools, of which ten are ojffiicial 
and nine are private; fifteen night schools, with an 
average of two teachers and twenty-five pupils each. 
Also one Chinese and German school; one secreta- 
ries' school ; one " servants' " school ; one commer- 
cial school, and a General Educational Association. 

The number of students shown in the record was 
86,653, exclusive of those in the half-day and night 
schools. Including military and police students, 
the total amounts to 100,000. 

Another useful institution is the Educational Mu- 
seum, founded by order of the Industrial Bureau in 
1905. It is provided with all the apparatus for ex- 
periments in physics and chemistry, with the instru- 
ments required in teaching the other sciences. Still 
another establishment is the Training Institute, to 
give employment to poor pupils and to train them 
to become skilled workers and artisans. The stu- 
dents number at present 1,000, and are taught by 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 131 

fifteen skilled manufacturers, three of whom are 
foreign experts. 

The desire for the new learning* has likewise 
reached the interior. In a village about thirty-five 
miles from Tientsin there is a flourishing girls' 
school. The curriculum includes, besides the Chi- 
nese written language, arithmetic, geography, ele- 
mentary science, sewing, drawing, calisthenics, 
music, and etiquette. The large school-room is ar- 
ranged like that of a Western school, and biological, 
zoological, and physical culture charts are hung 
over its walls; also maps and blackboards. The 
pupils are taught to sing with an organ. This is a 
free school supported by a wealthy family of the 
place, a member of which is the chief teacher. It 
is said that others of a similar kind may occasionally 
be found scattered about, and their influence in the 
New China cannot be estimated. 

Each of the 124 districts of the Province has 
about twenty primary schools, with an average of 
thirty boys apiece, who are taught upon a more 
rational plan than in the old schools. 

Each district has also one low-grade and one 
high-grade elementary school, with an average at- 
tendance of fifty boys, who not only study Chi- 
nese books, but are started in history, geography, 
arithmetic, and simple science. In each of the 
sixteen prefectural cities there is a middle school, 
where the study of English is begun, with more 
advanced courses of science and mathematics. Much 



132 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

attention is given to developing national and mili- 
tary sentiment. Physical training is an important 
part of the curriculum. In the lower grade schools 
there is simple drilling; in the higher colleges the 
students wear uniforms, are given manual exer- 
cises with the rifle, and are put through military 
evolutions. The text-books impress upon students 
the duty of developing the power of China, the dan- 
ger of military weakness, and the importance of 
self-sacrifice for national interests, illustrating these 
teachings by reminders of the rapid development of 
Prussia and of Japan. Instruction in all is free, and 
in the higher schools the students are boarded, and 
even clothed, at public expense, thus opening the 
new education to the poorest families. 

It is obvious to one acquainted with the great 
cost of educational institutions that such a system of 
free tuition in all grades, besides its inevitable de- 
moralising tendency, is a burden far too heavy to 
be borne by the State, and particularly in a country 
like China, which, while potentially rich, is actually 
poor. Unless this policy is changed, whenever a spe- 
cial revenue applied to educational purposes dimin- 
ishes or ceases, the schools and colleges will stop 
too. How long they can be conducted on the pres- 
ent plan is uncertain. Even if fees absolutely large 
were to be charged, they would at best provide for 
but a fraction of the heavy cost of buildings, equip- 
ment, and instructors. According to the old plan, 
one teacher taught a handful of boys a single line 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 133 

of study only, and was poorly paid for his work. 
On the new scheme, for a corps of teachers giving 
instruction in a wide range of studies, ten times, 
fifty times, perhaps several hundred times, as much 
must be expended, and how is the money to be 
raised? Much of the teaching is extremely inade- 
quate, and there is a great dearth of teachers; yet 
it is obvious that here are the fertile seeds of a 
New Empire. An important feature is the surpris- 
ing development of schools for women and girls, 
which, a few years ago absolutely unheard of, are 
now very common and rapidly increasing both in 
number and in importance. The girl students are 
becoming deeply imbued with patriotic sentiments, 
and they will be a factor of prime importance in the 
New China. There is one feature of the new edu- 
cation in the Far East of especial interest to Anglo- 
Saxons. This is the development of athletics, for 
which Orientals have hitherto felt only contempt. 
To see hundreds of stalwart young Chinese, in 
sporting costume, assembled on a Saturday after- 
noon (Sunday being usually a holiday in Govern- 
ment schools) putting the shot; throwing the 
baseball ; running the 100 yards, the 440 yards, the 
mile, and the obstacle races; executing the high 
jump, the long jump, the pole vault, and the tug 
of war — all this is one of the most surprising of 
modern sights. In a great port like Shanghai, on 
such occasions one may see Taotais by the dozen, 
and thousands of onlookers, including many girl 



134 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

students. It was recently announced that a team 
from the Chinese Y. M. C. A. of Rangoon had won 
the football championship for all Burmah, defeat- 
ing not only all comers in Burmah, but also the 
British regimental teams, which came from several 
parts of the presidency to try conclusions with their 
Asiatic opponents. In connection with the Korean 
Y. M. C. A. of Seoul, 130 young men who had 
been brought up in the lap of luxury and who a 
few years ago would not have gone more than a 
few yards except in palanquins, walked six miles to 
the field with flags and music. Foreigners who have 
chanced to be in interior cities report that the local 
contests between the pupils of the several Govern- 
ment schools arouse the most intense popular inter- 
est, two thousand spectators sometimes attending, 
including all the civil and military oflicials. A 
Chinese company of students in Shanghai has re- 
cently been allowed to join the Volunteers, and 
gave on the waterfront an exhibition of the drill 
and evolutions which the local journals declared had 
not often been surpassed. 

For two generations and more missionary influ- 
ence has been exerted against the ancient Chinese 
custom of binding the feet of girls, but during the 
past five years more progress in this reform has 
been made than in the previous half-century. At 
a great farewell meeting held at Shanghai, Novem- 
ber, 1906, to Mrs. Archibald Little (the wife of a 
British merchant), who has done more to promote 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 135 

the movement than any other individual, the reform 
was definitely turned over to Chinese leaders for 
their energetic prosecution, which is already as- 
sured. The greatest interest in this movement has 
been taken by the highest authorities, Imperial 
Edicts and proclamations by Governors-General and 
other officials, books, tracts, ballads — all having 
contributed to its furtherance. This will always 
be memorable as the first reform which the Chinese 
have cordially taken over from foreign initiative, 
to be followed, we may believe, by very many others. 
As already mentioned, a sincere effort is now in 
progress by the Government of China to put an 
end to the use of opium and the cultivation of the 
poppy plant, by limiting the period after which all 
opium-smoking becomes criminal, and by peremp- 
torily closing the houses where it is publicly smoked, 
as well as by forbidding it to those employed in 
yamens, to officials, soldiers, and all Government 
servants. It is, of course, easy for those who know 
how " reforms " in China, as in Russia, have been 
" written with a pitchfork on the surface of the 
sea," to point out the titanic difficulties to be en- 
countered. The Chinese Government, which issued 
its first drastic decree against the use of opium 167 
years ago, may be supposed to be aware of that. 
Because a thing never has been done, is it certain 
that it never can be done? Conditions are altered. 
A strong Chinese public sentiment, never before in 
evidence, is now antagonising opium. That great 



136 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

reserves of active and passive hostility must be en- 
countered is to be expected, especially as many of 
those by whom the laws are to be enforced are them- 
selves the worst offenders. But there is now a con- 
siderable number of able men, of whom H. E. T'ang 
Shao-i is the leader, who are in dead earnest, and 
who mean to give their lives to this reform. What 
these men need is not criticism, but sympathy. Even 
partial success in the course of a generation would 
be a remarkable and most encouraging transfor- 
mation.2 

There is in China a new journalism. The 
number of papers under native management is 
large, and also fluctuating. Instead of devoting 
their columns, as a decade ago many of them 
did, largely to local gossip, private and public scan- 
dals, and to blackmail, these journals are greatly 
widening their thoughts with the process of the Chi- 
nese sun. Dr. Woodbridge of Shanghai (himself 
the editor of a widely circulated Christian weekly) 

2 It is noteworthy that the decree ordering the discontinue 
ance of the use of opium was directly due to missionary ini- 
tiative. In May, Dr. H. C Bu Bose of Suchow, the Presi- 
dent of the Anti-Opium League, had an interview with the 
Governor-General of the "River Provinces" (H. E. Chou 
Fu), and was told that if a memorial signed by missionaries 
of all nationalities were sent to him he would forward it to 
the Throne. Ruled sheets were sent to 450 cities, and the 
returns gave 1,333 signatures, which were bound in a volume 
covered with yellow silk, and sent to Nanking, reaching there 
August 19, whence they were forwarded to Peking. The 
Imperial Edict was issued September 20. 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 137 

has recently written of them in these terms : " Gen- 
erally speaking, the native secular press is not anti- 
Christian. On the contrary, it is more pro-Christian 
than the secular press in Europe or America. One 
never sees a joke against the Bible in the native 
papers. The Chinese people are peculiarly susceptible 
to what they call tao-li, or doctrine — not specially 
theological doctrine — but any tenet that professes 
to teach, instruct, and reform." The " Nan Fang 
Pao," published in Shanghai, has a foreign page 
(the one with the Latin motto) which it calls the 
" South China Morning Journal," in which with 
vigorous English the editor — educated in America — 
fearlessly attacks abuses both among his own coun- 
trymen and among foreigners, some of whom under 
this unwonted criticism from a Chinese source are 
very restive. It is at the hands of such men that the 
whole history of China's past foreign relations is 
undergoing thorough review, eliciting caustic com- 
ment. Is it surprising that the " Ocean men " often 
wince at the rehearsal of the deeds which they and 
their fathers perpetrated with a light heart and 
with no apparent thought of a future? Freedom 
of the press cannot yet be safely granted in China, 
for there are no thousand years of slow preparation 
for it. The story of the progressive editor, P'eng of 
" The Peking Mandarin Daily," who was the leader 
in a patriotic movement to raise funds to pay off 
the foreign indemnities at once, is both pathetic 
and ominous. His paper, in which he may have 



138 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

been somewhat indiscreet, was suppressed, he was 
thrown into prison, and later driven at once into 
exile and into insanity! 

" The Woman's Daily Journal," of Peking, per- 
haps the only one of its kind in the world, is itself 
a sign of the new times. Its capable woman editor 
has also interested herself in attending lectures on 
current events, education, sanitation, reforms, and 
the like. A Manchu Princess (sister of Prince Su, 
whose palace was occupied by the Christians dur- 
ing the siege of Peking), herself the wife of a 
Mongol Prince, attended one of a course of these 
lectures (held in the chapel of the American Board 
Mission in Peking), bringing with her a bevy of 
girls, samples of a Mongol school, which, in imita- 
tion of those of the missionary ladies, she had 
against much opposition established in her Mon- 
golian home. )Who can say how far such a ray of 
influence may penetrate, or when its transmitted 
effects will cease? 

A few words must be added about the New Liter- 
ature with which China is now being inundated. A 
competent foreign scholar in Shanghai, Mr. John 
Darroch, who investigated the matter, found that 
in 1905 there were about 1,200 new publications to 
be found in the book-shops of the foreign settlement 
of Shanghai. 

Of the fifty-five shops, thirteen confined them- 
selves to the old literature, eleven sold both new 
and old, and thirty-one only the new. 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 139 

The largest single agency in China for their pro- 
duction and sale is the Commercial Press (under 
Japanese influence), which employs many hundred 
workmen, with a pay roll of $14,000 per month, and 
is at present greatly enlarging its plant. It has 
branches at Canton and Hankow, and agents all over 
China, and in San Francisco, to push sales among 
the Chinese in America. Among the new works 
are very pretty and attractive primers, got up in 
foreign style, with admirably executed pictures of 
natural objects. There were found sixty volumes 
on the science of education, and twenty volumes of 
text-books on geography, physics, etc. Ninety his- 
tories ranged in price from five cents to $2.50 
(silver) . Seven of them were so-called universal his- 
tories, eleven of Europe, twelve of Japan, several of 
China, five of Russia, four of England, two each of 
France and the United States, three of Egypt, four 
of the nineteenth century, and one each of Italy, 
Rome, Greece, and Turkey. There were forty books 
on geography, sixty on government, forty on law, 
thirty on political economy, seventy on mathematics, 
fifty on literature, fifty on language, seventy on 
health, sixty on science, seventy on drawing, one 
hundred and twenty on the art of war, thirty on agri- 
culture, twenty on astronomy, forty on mechanics, 
thirty books of travel, and twenty on mensuration. 
Among all these books non-Christian religions are 
not represented by a single tract or page, Chris- 
tianity is indeed the only religion referred to with 



I40 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

any respect by the writers of the new literature. 
" They are not pro-Christian, some of them even 
write tirades against Christianity; but for Taoism 
and Buddhism they have an unmitigated contempt." 
Fiction was represented in one year by but twenty- 
one volumes, and in the next by fifty-seven, showing 
which way the Oriental mental tides run. Among 
well-known books translated and for sale, were 
Uncle Tom's Cabin; Treasure Island; The Memoirs 
of Sherlock Holmes ; Tales from Shakespeare ; Joan 
of Arc, and even the Arabian Nights is said to be in 
preparation. In a paper on this fertile subject read 
in 1905 at a meeting of the Educational Associa- 
tion, Mr. Darroch judiciously remarked : " If the 
Chinese are being interested in Western storybooks 
they are learning to appreciate our way of looking 
at things. It will not much longer be true that the 
mind of the Orient is so dissimilar to the thoughts 
of the Occident that these two must always remain 
incomprehensible to one another. This is the one 
touch of nature which will make the whole world 
kin, and we shall find this mighty nation of 400 
millions as susceptible to the thrills of emotion 
which sweep over our national life, as are our nearer 
and more intimate neighbours. That this change of 
sentiment on the part of the Chinese will have pro- 
digious effects on our work as missionaries and 
educationalists will not, I think, be gainsaid." 

The despatch, early in 1906, of two Imperial 
Commissions from China to the West to study the 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 141 

forms of " constitutional government " was an in- 
teresting, a spectacular, and a significant sign of 
the new times upon which China has fallen. An 
attempt to destroy one of these parties at the Pe- 
king railway station by a bomb was a sinister pre- 
lude, and an ill-omened introduction of Occidental 
methods into the East. The two Commissions, al- 
though absent from China less than eight months, 
visited the United States and all the principal coun- 
tries of Europe. The leading members of the Com- 
missions, while able and intelligent men, one of 
them — a Manchu Prince — had not the smallest ac- 
quaintance with constitutional government, and 
some of them had not even set foot on a steamer. 
But by the aid of far-travelled and experienced sec- 
retaries the Commissioners were able to observe 
widely, if not deeply, and to prepare comprehensive 
and intelligent reports of what they had seen. Upon 
their return and on the presentation of their re- 
ports, great differences of opinion developed among 
the leading men of China as to the extent to which 
Japan should be imitated in fixing a definite date 
for the new plan to begin. The conservatives tri- 
umphed, and a decree was issued mentioning " sev- 
eral years " as the period of incubation, which in 
an Oriental country is generally understood to be 
synonymous with postponement to the Greek Kal- 
ends. But it is probably a fortunate outcome, for 
although great mass-meetings of rejoicing were held 
in many of the ports and in some inland cities, 



142 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

scarcely any one had any idea at all what the pro- 
posed innovations involved. 

It was pointed out in some of the memorials that 
the people are as yet too ignorant to render the step 
a safe one, and compulsory education was urged. 
From that time to the present the most apparently 
radical changes in governmental machinery have 
been proposed, and many of them adopted; as, for 
example, the abolition of some of the many 
" Boards," the creation of an indefinite number of 
new ones, and (incidentally) the introduction of an 
entirely new and bewildering nomenclature. But 
though the old boards are thus planed and varnished, 
with new titles on their shining faces, of essential 
reform there is scarcely any sign, although sooner 
or later, against great opposition, it must come. In 
October of the same year a novel examination was 
held in Peking, which marks a turning-point in the 
educational practice of a great Empire. During 
two entire but not consecutive days fifty-three can- 
didates were examined by the new Board of Educa- 
tion for the two highest degrees. Of these, twenty- 
three had studied in Japan, sixteen in the United 
States, two in England, and one in Germany, their 
ages ranging from twenty-three to forty-four years, 
and their degrees from that of a graduate of a Japa- 
nese " High School " to a Doctor of Philosophy of 
Yale University. Eleven of the candidates failed to 
pass, and of the successful contestants, the first 
twelve places, with the exception of the sixth, which 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 143 

was taken by a Trinity Hall man, fell to ex- American 
students. The three questions propounded to the 
candidates in philosophy were as follows: (i) De- 
fine philosophy, and distinguish it from science and 
ethics. Explain the following systems of philosoph- 
ical thought: Dualism, Theism, Idealism, Material- 
ism, Pantheism, Agnosticism. How would you 
classify, according to the Western method, the fol- 
lowing Chinese philosophers: Chuang Tzu, Chang 
Tsai, Chu Tzu, Lu Tzu, and Wang Yang Ming? 

(2) Explain why philosophy developed earliest in 
Greece. What are the leading thoughts in the 
teaching of Heraclitus? Why will his system, at 
one time almost obsolete, again become popular? 

(3) Expound fully Mill's four methods of induc- 
tion, and mention some of the scientific discoveries 
and inventions which may be directly traced to 
them.. On the second day the theme for the essay 
was: Will it be expedient for China to adopt the 
system of compulsory education? 

The candidates were graded, first, according to 
their foreign degrees ; second, on the basis of their 
work since graduation; and third, on their exam- 
ination papers. Those who attained to over 80 per 
cent, of a possible 100 were to receive the first de- 
gree (Chin shih), of whom there were eight; those 
who reached 70 obtained a first-class second degree 
(Chii jen) ; those who reached 60, a second-class of 
the same rank, while those marked 50 merely re- 
ceived a certificate of attendance at the exami- 



144 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

nation. The candidates were allowed to prepare 
their papers either in Chinese or in any Western 
tongue which they preferred, and all those from 
America or Europe chose English. This liberty 
shows, as one of the ablest of the successful candi- 
dates (Dr. W. W. Yen) points out, that " at last the 
barriers in the way of Western knowledge have been 
battered down, and the new education in China will 
become something real and thorough." Contrary 
to all previous experience, no man was given an 
official position simply because he passed the exami- 
nation, that being left to be otherwise determined. 
This does away at a blow with the superstition 
that every man able to satisfy examiners is there- 
fore fit to hold office. No religious tests were re- 
quired, and no distinction was made between 
Christians and non-Christians. Indeed, nine of the 
successful men were Christians, eight were Protes- 
tants, and one was a Roman Catholic, and if those 
were included who took their preparatory studies in 
Christian institutions, the number would be larger.^ 
It is somewhat less than fifty years ago since the 

3 Among those who took degrees at this examination was a 
graduate of an American dental college, and another whose 
forte was engineering. The delicious absurdity of bestowing 
the stately title of "Entered Scholar" (Chin-shih) upon 
students of this type was not lost upon the reactionary party. 
Even more open to criticism was the entire absence of any 
requirements as to attainments in the native language of the 
candidates, one of whom, according to Dr. Yen, could not 
write his own name decently in Chinese! 



NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 145 

Governor-General of the two Kuang Provinces (H. 
E. Yeh) was captured by the British when they 
took Canton, and was carried off to Calcutta. On 
the long voyage, in answer to a question why he 
never read anything, he made the memorable reply 
that it was because all the books in the world that 
were worth reading were already stored in his 
" abdomen." From that time to the day in Octo- 
ber when H. E. Yen Fu invited sundry graduates 
of American, British, Japanese, and German insti- 
tutions to explain how Western philosophers would 
classify Chuang Tzu, Chu Hsi, and Lu Tzu, and 
why the system of Heraclitus will once more become 
popular, is what the hunt-loving English call " a far 
cry " ; although measured on the vast dial-plate of 
Chinese chronology it is but as a watch in the night. 
Is it not obvious that the Genius, now fully lib- 
erated from the Celestial Bottle in which for some 
thousands of years he has been corked and sealed, 
will never again be got back inside? And is it 
not equally plain that what that Genius decides to 
do in the future is a matter of considerable mo- 
ment to his neighbours, and indeed to all his con- 
temporaries ? 



VII 



AMERICANS ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 
IN CHINA 



A Chinese who recognises the ideograph which 
does duty as the name of America (Mei, from its 
resemblance to the EngHsh word) is aware that it 
means " beautiful/' and that when dissected it is 
found to be composed of two characters signify- 
ing " great '' and " sheep." His ideas as to the 
" Western " land which is yet situated due east, are 
vague and hazy. His mental attitude, so far as he 
has any, is that of unintelligent ignorance. 

The average American who has been to school, 
has studied geography, reads the newspapers, and 
who constantly hears in the city street-cars and in 
the village store and post-office much instructive 
conversation on current events, knows that China 
is situated in the west; that it has a " Yang-tzu Ki- 
ang river," a " Huang Ho river," possibly a " T'ai 
Hu lake," or even a " T'ai Shan mountain " ; that 
its proper names are essentially unpronounceable 
by " civilised " beings ; that its language is a pre- 
posterous medley of absurdities, impossible to acquire 
and useless when learned ; that all Chinese eat noth- 
ing but puppies, rice, and rats; that for thousands 

146 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 147 

of years this people have been decorated with ** a 
pig-tail " ; that they have a fixed habit of doing ev- 
erything " just the opposite from the right way " ; 
and that in general the Chinese are a numerous, 
a troublesome, and a ridiculous folk. The aver- 
age more or less educated American is therefore 
much superior to the uneducated Chinese, for his 
mental attitude is that of intelligent ignorance. 

It is perhaps difficult for anyone but a scientist 
to explain, or to understand when it is explained, 
what constitutes a " race." But neither the sci- 
entist nor anyone else has the smallest doubt that 
the Anglo-Saxon " race " is equipped with a race- 
prejudice probably not matched, certainly not ex- 
celled, elsewhere. There is in our minds no ques- 
tion that We are the '' heirs of all the ages, in the 
foremost files of time," the last and finest product 
of age-long evolution, and in a word the World's 
Last Hope. After Us the deluge! 

It is somewhat singular that a country which be- 
gan its career with the dramatic production of a 
document like the Declaration of Independence, 
which announces to mankind that " We hold these 
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created 
free and equal," should, after attaining such confi- 
dence in the abstract proposition (however inter- 
preted), find so much difficulty in acting upon it in 
the concrete. While it is a superseded after-dinner 
pleasantry that our remote forebears " first fell upon 
their knees and then fell upon the aborigines," it 



148 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

is much more than an epigram to say, in the phrase 
of Helen Hunt, that the record of our treatment of 
the North American Indians extends far beyond "A 
Century of Dishonour " down to the latest scientific 
theft of " Reservations." Our admirable Lake Mo- 
honk Conferences and other agencies have done their 
best, and a very efficient best it has been, to introduce 
saner and righteous methods; but the disgrace of 
the past is indelible. Our dealings with the black 
man are even worse than those with the red man, 
and the ensuing evils constitute the gravest danger 
on the horizon of the Republic. 

At the root there has always been a more or less 
prevalent contempt for the " red-skins," epitomised 
in the venerable dictum that " the only good Indian 
is a dead Indian." There is a well-nigh irresistible 
propensity to pronounce the race name of the negro 
with the letter " g " doubled, and to couple with it 
an epithet implying that the individual spoken of 
has been judicially condemned. The same point 
of view is that from which all other " inferior 
races " are too often contemplated. Natives of 
the south of Europe are compendiously termed " da- 
goes " ; a Japanese is styled " a Jap " (an expres- 
sion which they very properly resent) ; while the 
Chinese is, as it were, ex officio " John," coupled 
with " Chinaman " (a deprecatory patronymic for 
which there is no analogy and no necessity), or witH 
delicate irony he is mentioned as "a Chink." In 
each of these cases words are real things embodying 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 149 

a lofty indifference, not to say an insolent con- 
tempt. 

In a similar manner, we are in the constant habit 
of speaking of distant and unfamiHar localities as 
" out there," as if they were simply points in the 
interstellar spaces destitute of lines of latitude or 
longitude by which they might be defined. We 
will not take the trouble to master the speech of 
other nations (contenting ourselves with charac- 
terising each in turn as " a lingo "), and if foreign- 
ers cannot speak English it is not uncommon to 
hear them criticised as intellectual bankrupts. " I 
asked that Russian," said a well-bred American to 
the writer of these lines, " when the bridge would 
be opened, but the fool couldn't talk English." Is 
it not wise to recall the reply of a Constantinople 
dragoman, stung by a similar comment made for 
similar cause? "You spik Turkish?" "No." 
" You spik Greek ? '' " No." " You spik Arabic ? " 
"No." "You spik Italian?" "No." "You spik 
Spanish?" "No." " You spik French ? " " No, no, 
no, I don't speak any of them." " Well, s'pose I 
fool, you six times fool! '' One of the qualities for 
which we are least distinguished abroad (or at home) 
is self-depreciation and modesty. The presupposi- 
tion, perhaps entirely unconscious, of our unques- 
tioned superiority in almost everything, is often 
almost axiomatic. This is not precisely the same as 
the brag and bluster of the ante-helium days, when 
it seemed to be supposed that America could " beat 



150 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

all Creation/' yet it is not so far removed. In the 
minds of large numbers, more especially of the ed- 
ucated and travelled class, this assumption does not 
exist, and in many cases, although it has a root, it 
has the good taste not to show above ground. But 
among the people at large it appears to prevail 
extensively and intensively to a surprising and 
depressing extent. If anything could mitigate or 
cure it, world-knowledge and world responsibilities 
might be expected to do so. No other national trait 
tends to make Americans more disliked or more 
ridiculous. The tone of the stronger and the saner 
American journals shows an increasing perception 
of America's real greatness and opportunities; but, 
on the other hand, many newspapers and numerous 
speeches in Congress and elsewhere show how far 
just views are from being universal. 

The magnitude of the work which has been done 
in subduing a virgin continent, the restless and un- 
tamable energy which has accomplished so much in 
so short a time, is a wonderful spectacle, upon which 
we may rightly dwell with satisfaction and gratula- 
tion. But in listening to some of our people dilate 
upon this topic one might at times almost gain the 
impression that in past ages a committee of eminent 
brevet American citizens had first deliberated on 
the necessity for more room for expansion, and 
that thereupon the whole American continent, moun- 
tains, plains, rivers, and waterfalls, had been cre- 
ated from designs furnished by themselves. In 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 151 

less than a century we have, it is true, " conquered 
the wilderness." But we have wasted the bound- 
less forests, destroying manifold more timber than 
we have utilised, thus drying up brooks and rivers 
that were perennial By reckless and slovenly cul- 
tivation we have exhausted millions of acres of once 
fertile land, we have squandered (and are still 
squandering) the natural fertilisers of the soil, turn- 
ing the nitrates into the water-courses, so that, in 
Victor Hugo's phrase, pestilence springs from the 
streams and hunger from the furrow. Of these by- 
products of our " civilisation " we do not now 
boast. We gladly expend scores of millions of dol- 
lars to undo a fractional per cent, of the needless, 
wilful, inexcusable havoc which we have wrought 
and are still working in a continent of marvellous 
resources, to which if we had any claim at all it 
was because we could use and develop it as a trust 
for ages and generations to come. 

A people with a record like this are manifestly 
at a disadvantage when confronted with Orientals, 
who have occupied their ancestral seats for three 
or four millenniums, who are reasonably contented, 
and who have no consciousness of " earth-hunger." 
It is a distinct advantage to citizens of the United 
States in dealing with China that our several treaties 
with that Empire have been honourable to America 
and just to China. (Detailed information in re- 
gard to them may be found in the Hon. John W. 
Foster's " American Diplomacy in the Orient," from 



152 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

whose work extracts have been freely made.) The 
first of the series was negotiated by a shrewd law- 
yer, the Hon. Caleb Cushing, who was fully a match 
for the procrastinating and obstructive Chinese. 
The letter of instructions was penned by Daniel 
Webster, then Secretary of State, and " shows his 
wide grasp of public questions." The accompany- 
ing letter which President Tyler sent to the Em- 
peror of China, however, is not a State paper of 
which Americans have occasion to be proud, and 
many will agree with the comment of Captain Brink- 
ley: "Every historian of China^s foreign relations 
has placed ineffable conceit at the head of her cat- 
alogue of sins. But no document known to have 
emanated from the Chinese Court is permeated with 
such a fine tone of patronising superiority as the 
autograph letter written by the President of the 
United States to the Grand Khan in Peking, on the 
1 2th of July, 1843. Mr» Tyler undertook to convey 
information as well as admonition to his * good 
friend' Tao Kuang. He told him that the sea 
alone divided America and China ; that the latter had 
* millions and millions of subjects,' and that Ameri- 
can citizens * leaving the mouth of one of their great 
rivers, and going constantly toward the setting sun, 
sailed to Japan and to the Yellow Sea'; and he 
told him also that * the rising sun looked upon the 
great rivers and great mountains of China,' while 
*the setting sun looked upon rivers and mountains 
equally large in the United States,' which is much the 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 153 

sort of language that Fenimore Cooper would have 
put into the mouth of a * great white chief ' address- 
ing a Choctaw or an Apache. Then the President, 
continuing his courteous confidences, informed his 
* good friend ' that * the Chinese loved to trade with 
our people, and to sell them tea and silk, for which 
our people paid silver, and sometimes other arti- 
cles,' e, g., opium ; and then, rising above primers of 
geography and commerce, Mr. Tyler admonished 
the Grand Khan that * There shall be rules. Our 
minister, Caleb Cushing, is authorised to make a 
treaty. Let it be just. Let there be no unfair ad- 
vantage on either side. Let the treaty be signed by 
your own Imperial hand. It shall be signed by mine, 
and the authority of our great council, the Senate. 
And so, may your health be good, and may peace 
reign I ' To the note struck clearly in this diapason 
of dignified condescension, the note of justice, Amer- 
ica's dealings with Eastern countries have always 
been attuned. It is true that she practises against the 
Chinese an illiberal exclusiveness, which, if prac- 
tised by them against American citizens, would be 
punished at the cannon's mouth ; and it is also true 
that to China's demands for redress for murderous 
outrages of which her subjects are the victims, 
Washington replies by pretexts of domestic admin- 
istration which, were they advanced by Peking, 
would be laughed to scorn. But these are the flaws 
in the jewel. Chinese and Japanese alike have 
learned by experience that the United States Govern- 



154 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

ment may be implicitly trusted to do in any inter- 
national complication not merely what is right and 
just, but also what is generous. It is a fine record, 
and that it should have for its frontispiece the 
strange letter of President Tyler to Emperor Tao 
Kuang is a striking incongruity." ^ A year later, re- 
marks another British writer, "a treaty of peace, 
amity, and commerce was concluded, which, it must 
be confessed, was far in advance of its British pred- 
ecessor. In its thirty-six clauses ample provision 
is made for every possible contingency which could 
then be foreseen, and for a period of sixteen years 
until the signature and ratification of the Tientsin 
treaties the Gushing convention served as the basis 
for the settlement of nearly all disputes arising be- 
tween foreigners in China." 

Mr. Foster cites the testimony of a contemporary 
British authority, who wrote : " The United States 
Government in their treaty with China, and in vig- 
ilant protection of their subjects at Canton, have 
evinced far better diplomacy, and more attention to 
substantial interests than we have done, although 
it has not cost them as many groats as we have spent 
guineas, while their position in China is really more 
advantageous and respected than that of England, 
after all our sacrifice of blood and treasure." After 
the negotiations conducted by Mr. Cushing were 
once under way, there was no serious difficulty in 
concluding the, Wang Hsia treaty, so named from 
the place of its signature in a suburb of Macao. 

1 Oriental Series, "China," vol. xi., pp. i73-'^75- 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 155 

It is a singular fact that during all this period 
" Mr. Gushing had not set foot on Chinese territory, 
nor had he held personal intercourse with a single 
high Chinese official, except the embassy, up to the 
time of signing the treaty, and that instrument had 
been negotiated and executed on foreign (Portu- 
guese) territory." 

The second treaty between the United States and 
China was arranged in 1858 at Tientsin, just after 
that of Russia, and in advance of those of Great 
Britain and France. It granted diplomatic privi- 
leges, enlarged trade and travel, and religious tol- 
eration, but owing to the intervening war with 
Great Britain the ratification was postponed till 
the following year. In 1867, Mr. Anson Burlin- 
game, the United States Minister to China, who 
after a period of six years was about to resign his 
office, was suddenly appointed Envoy of the Chinese 
Government with the highest rank, to visit all the 
treaty Powers as high minister empowered to at- 
tend to every question arising between China and 
those countries. Much natural, and indeed inevita- 
ble, jealousy was felt in Europe at the selection of 
an American for this unique position; and, on the 
other hand, great hopes were entertained of the out- 
come ; but they were frustrated by the death of Mr. 
Burlingame at St. Petersburg before anything of 
permanent importance had been accomplished. " The 
only substantial result of the mission was the treaty 
which it negotiated with the Government of the 



156 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

United States," which was drafted by Secretary 
Seward. " It stipulated the territorial integrity of 
China by disavowing any right to interfere with 
its eminent domain or sovereign jurisdiction Over 
its subjects and property; it recognised the right of 
China to regulate its internal trade not affected by; 
treaty; provided for the appointment of consuls; 
secured exemption from persecution and disability 
on account of religion ; recognised the right of vol- 
untary emigration; granted the privilege of schools 
and colleges; disavowed the intention to interfere 
with the domestic administration of China in re- 
spect to public improvements, but expressed the 
willingness of the United States to aid in such en- 
terprises when requested by China." The special 
feature of the Burlingame treaty of 1868 was its 
emigration agreement. Article V. " cordially recog- 
nised the inherent and inalienable right of man to 
change his home and allegiance, and also the mutual 
advantage of the free immigration and emigration 
of their citizens and subjects respectively from one 
country to the other for purposes of curiosity, of 
trade, or as permanent residents " ; and Article VI. 
provided that the citizens and subjects, respectively, 
" shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities, or 
exemptions in respect to travel or residence as may 
there be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the 
most favoured nation." The President in communi- 
cating notice of it to Congress spoke of it as " a lib- 
eral and auspicious treaty." There was a delay in 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 157 

its ratification by the Chinese Government, and 
serious uneasiness was felt in the United States lest 
it should fail. " Under President Grant's direction. 
Secretary Fish instructed the American Minister in 
Peking to exert his influence with the Chinese au- 
thorities to bring about its early ratification." He 
wrote : " Many considerations call for this, besides 
those which may be deduced from what has gone 
before in this instruction. Every month brings 
thousands of Chinese immigrants to the Pacific 
coast. Already they have crossed the great moun- 
tains and are beginning to be found in the interior 
of the continent. By their assiduity, patience, and fi- 
delity, and by their intelligence, they earn the good- 
will and confidence of those who employ them. We 
have good reason to think this thing will continue 
and increase '' ; and the Secretary said it was wel- 
comed by the country. Ten years after this treaty 
was signed. President Hayes, in a message to Con- 
gress, thus spoke of its leading provision : " Un- 
questionably the adhesion of the Government of 
China to these liberal principles of freedom in emi- 
gration, with which we were so familiar and with 
which we were so well satisfied, was a great ad- 
vance toward opening that Empire to our civilisation 
and religion, and gave promise in the future of 
greater practical results in the diffusion throughout 
that great population of our arts and industries, 
our manufactures, our material improvements, and 
the sentiments of government and religion which 



158 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

seem to us so important to the welfare of man- 
kind." But it was not long after the ratification of 
this treaty that strong opposition to the immigra- 
tion of Chinese into the United States began to 
manifest itself, on the ground that they are too 
industrious and too frugal; that by their competi- 
tion they drove out white labour, underbid and un- 
derlived all Occidental peoples; that they sent their 
wages out of the country; were segregated in over- 
crowded and filthy sections of every city where they 
were numerous; and that they were unassimilable 
and generally undesirable. The sentiment had be- 
come so strong that in 1876 an appeal was made to 
Congress to abrogate the treaty, and the report of 
the committe appointed, with the accompanying tes- 
timony, constitutes a volume of over twelve hundred 
pages. 

This is not the place to argue the question of 
Chinese immigation. On the count of industry 
and frugality, which the old proverb affirmed — in 
this case erroneously — to be the two hands of for- 
tune, they were immediately convicted. The evi- 
dence of the effect of Chinese labour on the demand 
for white labour was, and still is, contradictory, but 
that large regions of the United States have long 
been and are still suffering for the lack of labour of 
which there appears to be no adequate supply, is 
demonstrable, and indeed obvious, even to an unob- 
servant traveller. 

The relevancy of the argument so dear to the 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 159 

former San Francisco sand-lot orator, and now in- 
herited by the labour unions, that the Chinese send 
their money abroad, is somewhat difficult of compre- 
hension, in view of the proved fact that they are 
among the most constant patrons of the transporta- 
tion companies, that they almost invariably spend 
their money freely, and that it is not disputed that 
whatever becomes of their wages, the product of 
their labour, which is all that is paid for, remains. 
This issue, moreover, is not apparently raised in 
regard to any other immigrants, or it might go hard 
with some of them. All that has been said of the 
evils of " Chinatown " in many of our large cities 
is undoubtedly true, the forces of both Oriental and 
Occidental degeneracy being here at their maxi- 
mum ; but it seldom seems to occur to critics of this 
state of things that their existence is prima facie a 
confession, and indeed a proclamation, of American 
inefficiency and incompetency (not to say imbecil- 
ity) in the administration of cities. In support of 
this self-evident truth, take, for example, the com- 
ment of one of our latest and leading authorities 
upon municipal police problems, who says : " Chi- 
natown would not long exist if there was any really 
honest public opinion that wanted it driven out; 
but it has white friends, influential ones — the real 
estate owner, the men in politics, members of rich 
societies, mistaken philanthropists, a little regiment 
of lawyers who make money out of it, newspaper 
men and magazine writers who exploit it, sight- 



i6o CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

seers who think it represents life in China, and some 
people who distinctly think that it is a decidedly pic- 
turesque addition to the town and a good place to 
take a country friend once in a while and let him see 
something old and Oriental. If an honest police cap- 
tain, therefore, attempts to put a heavy hand on the 
place, there is at once an outbreak of sympathy for 
these innocent and honest-looking Chinamen, long 
articles in the newspapers about warring * tongs,' 
and about good Chinamen, bad Chinamen, Christian 
Chinamen, and police brutality. Then, too, there 
is the suspicion, unfortunately founded on too many 
facts, that in times past corrupt police officials have 
derived large revenues from this rank and ill- 
smelling little town."2 

A comprehensive study of the methods which 
have been adopted in British colonies, a sympa- 
thetic co-operation with the best elements among the 
Chinese themselves, and with the heads of the Chi- 
nese immigration companies, the service of compe- 
tent, fearless, and, above all, incorruptible officials, 
backed by an intelligent, law-abiding people, might 
have prevented or at least materially modified such 
conditions as have disgraced American cities. That 
there is more or less of a gulf between the Chinese 
and the Occidental, it is one of the objects of the 
present volume not to deny, but to emphasise; but 
that it is not a gulf which is "fixed'' by a law 

2 "Guarding a Great City," by William McAdoo, Police 
Commissioner, New York City. New York, 1906, pp. 179-180. 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES i6i 

of Nature is evident from the alteration of Chinese 
types found in the Straits Settlements, Australia, 
and especially in our own Hawaiian Islands, where 
may be found as promising specimens of the Chinese 
race as anywhere in the world. 

The result of the agitation of the question of 
Chinese immigration was the enactment by the 
Forty-fifth Congress (1878) of a law which was 
little short of absolute exclusion, and provided for 
the abolition of Articles V. and VL of the Bur- 
lingame treaty (it having been found that it was 
inconvenient for Americans any longer to cordially 
recognise " the inherent and inalienable right of 
man to change his home and allegiance, and also 
the mutual advantage of the free immigration and 
emigration of their citizens and subjects, respec- 
tively, from one country to the other for purposes 
of curiosity, of trade, or as permanent residents." 
Had it been China that was guilty of such disregard 
of international obligations, much more would have 
been heard about the matter; but China had not 
then come to international self-consciousness. 

In 1880, a special Commission negotiated a new 
treaty, which gave the United States the "power 
to regulate, limit, or suspend immigration, but not 
absolutely to prohibit it," the prohibition applying 
only to labourers, others being permitted to enter 
freely and to reside in the United States. By way, 
as it were, of illustrating the American conception 
of the binding force of treaty stipulations, in 1882 



1 62 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

Congress passed a law prohibiting or suspending 
the immigration of Chinese labourers for twenty 
years, but the act was vetoed by President Arthur 
on the ground that a prohibition of immigration 
for such period was in violation of the assurance of 
the Commission which negotiated it, that the large 
powers conferred on Congress " would be exercised 
by our Government with a wise discretion, in a 
spirit of reciprocal and sincere friendship, and with 
entire justice." Congress thereupon modified the 
law by suspending the immigration of labourers for 
ten years. While a new treaty with China was in 
process of negotiation to provide for still greater 
restrictions on the return of immigrants who had 
once been in America, under pressure of the labour 
unions and in the stress of a political campaign, a 
law known as the Scott act was passed, absolutely 
prohibiting the admission of Chinese labourers to 
the United States, thus once more violating treaty 
obligations, by which (in the case at least of China) 
we proclaimed ourselves to be no longer bound. 
This was fortified by a new treaty, which China: 
good-naturedly consented to sign, prohibiting the 
admission of Chinese labourers for ten years. Re- 
strictive legislation of the most radical character 
was then attempted, which would in practice have 
prohibited scholars, teachers, and travellers from 
setting foot on our soil. The bill embodying these 
stringent provisions was defeated, and for it was 
substituted another continuing in force existing laws 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 163 

and regulations not inconsistent with the treaty, until 
1904, or until a new treaty should be made. 

It would not be difficult to add one more to the 
many essays and volumes which have been written 
on the subject of Asiatic immigration into Occiden- 
tal lands, for the question concerns not alone the 
United States, but Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Central 
and South America, Australia, and New Zealand. 
The object of this chapter, however, is much less 
ambitious, but much more comprehensive, namely, 
to point out that the past methods of dealing with 
the subject on the part of the people and the Con- 
gress of the United States are radically wrong, and 
that unless we are to be involved in serious future 
trouble they must be changed. 

Let us specify four particulars: 

I. The treatment of Chinese labourers in the 
United States. The coming of Chinese at our ur- 
gent invitation at the time of the discovery of gold 
in California was due to the absolute necessity for 
cheaper labour. They were invaluable in every ca- 
pacity, as they always have been in each of the 
many lands to which they have migrated. The 
steamer companies in every way encouraged and 
facilitated emigration. Without the Chinese the 
continental railways could not have been built. 
There was a gradual expansion of Chinese activi- 
ties in all forms of useful service in towns and in 
settlements, but the Chinese also took up abandoned 
workings in mines and streams and made them pay. 



i64 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

But race prejudice soon got upon their trail. Chi- 
nese testimony was not admissible in courts of law, 
leaving them a helpless prey to violence which was 
never lacking. A Chinese was taxed over and over 
again on the same mining property by armed and 
lawless men whom he had no power to resist. His 
legally acquired mining claims were raided, his 
dwellings destroyed, whole settlements broken up, 
and countless unprovoked and brutal murders com- 
mitted not only in the hamlets and towns on the Pa- 
cific coast, but in the large cities as well. In Rock 
Spring, Wyoming, all the Chinese residents, five 
hundred in number, were driven out of town and 
eleven killed outright, while many others probably 
died of their wounds after being chased to the hills, 
where food was kindly sent them by the authorities. 
In Tacoma about seven hundred Chinese were un- 
lawfully expelled by an anti-Chinese mob in No- 
vember, 1885, and but for the firmness of a few 
individuals the same outrage would have been 
perpetrated a few months later in Seattle. A pam- 
phlet published in San Francisco, in 1905, repro- 
duces accounts, ranging through many years, of 
several score of incidents of this sort from local 
journals in California, Oregon, Washington, Ne- 
vada, and other places, the editors in many towns 
being by mere self-respect compelled to take the part 
of the persecuted Chinese, while others shamelessly 
defended every atrocity. " The Supreme Court of 
California, in 1855, made a decision, in order to 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 165 

exclude all Chinese testimony against white men, 
which briefly amounts to this: First, a native 
of China is an African negro; second, a native of 
China is an American Indian; third, a native of 
China has no right which an American white man 
is bound to respect; therefore murderers and rob- 
bers of any nation may commit what crime they 
please against such without concern as to American 
courts.'* ^ 

The total number of Chinese victims of Ameri- 
can violence during these years will never be known, 
but it was probably several hundreds. 

There is no particular in which the worst Boxer 
atrocities in China were not equalled and exceeded 
by what has been perpetrated in many cities and 
settlements of Christian America. Great military 
expeditions and a heavy indemnity avenged the for- 
mer. Almost all the latter were entirely unpun- 

8 The present Minister from China to the United States, 
In an address at Chicago a little more than a year ago, made 
the following statement: "More Chinese subjects have been 
murdered by mobs in the United States during the last 
twenty-five years than all the Americans who have been mur- 
dered in China in similar riots. ... In every instance 
where Americans have suffered from mobs, the authorities 
have made reparation for the losses, and rarely has the pun- 
ishment of death failed to be inflicted upon the guilty 
offenders. On the other hand, I am sorry to say that I 
cannot recall a single instance where the penalty of death 
has been visited on any member of the mobs in the United 
States guilty of the death of Chinese, and in only two 
instances out of many has indemnity been paid for the losses 
sustained by the Chinese." 



1 66 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

ished. The criminals could not be brought to trial, 
could not be identified if tried ; when their guilt was 
proved they were frequently allowed to escape, and 
if convicted the sentences were seldom if ever car- 
ried into effect.^ The Chinese bore all this with 
most exemplary patience. A remonstrance pre- 
pared for presentation to Congress in the name of 
the Chinese merchants of San Francisco (a trans- 
lation of which is printed in Dr. Speer's volume) 
is a temperate, dignified, and forcible document, ap- 
pealing to the rulers of this country as reasonable 
men to govern the land according to the will of 
Heaven, and to put an end to the crimes and atroc- 
ities, of which a long and dark catalogue is given. 
It is impossible for any intelligent and candid reader 
to examine the testimony in regard to American 
treatment of the Chinese for more than half a cen- 
tury without coming to the conclusion that no 
country able to fight would have submitted to such 
chronic insult and outrage without going to war to 
avenge it. 

2. The treatjment of Chinese labourers in the 
United States has been bad, but from the Chinese 
point of view that of Chinese merchants, students, 
and travellers has been even worse. Because many 
Chinese contrived to evade the laws. United States 
officials frequently appeared determined to show 

4 "The Oldest and the Newest Empire: China and the 
United States," by WiUiam Speer, D. D., Hartford, 1870, p. 
577. Detailed accounts of these events with appropriate com- 
ments and suggestions abound in this volume. 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 167 

Chinese that this great RepubHc is not to be trifled 
with, upon the evident assumption that it is better 
to exclude ten Chinese entitled to enter the coun- 
try rather than admit one whose right was doubt- 
ful. Chinese merchants, scholars, and travellers 
have often been deliberately classed as labourers, al- 
though distinguishable at a glance; they have been 
immured in the unsanitary and often filthy detention 
sheds of San Francisco and subjected to the humil- 
iation — unheard of in China — of being stripped 
naked and measured by the Bertillon system as if 
they were convicted criminals. The facts have been 
often related in detail in American newspapers, mag- 
azines, and reviews, and may be supposed J:o be 
familiar to all who care to know them. The late 
Taotai Wang Kai-ka contributed an article to the 
" North American Review," for March, 1904, under 
the suggestive title: "A Menace to America's 
Oriental Trade." 

Mr. Chester Holcombe, formerly Secretary of 
the United States Legation in Peking, in an arti- 
cle in "The Outlook" (April 23, 1904), mentions 
among other illustrations of our methods the case 
of a Chinese merchant in San Francisco who re- 
turned to China to get a bride, only to find that she 
was not allowed to land in California. " Another 
Chinese merchant and wife, of unquestioned stand- 
ing in San Francisco, made a trip to China, and 
while there a child was born. On returning to 
their home in America the sapient officials could in- 



1 68 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

terpose no objection to the readmission of the par- 
ents, but peremptorily refused to admit the three- 
months-old baby, as, never having been in this 
country, it had no right to enter it! Neither of 
these preposterous decisions could be charged to 
the stupidity or malice of the local officials, for both 
were appealed to the Secretary of the Treasury in 
Washington and were officially sustained by him as 
in accordance with law, though in the latter case 
the Secretary, the Hon. Daniel Manning, in approv- 
ing the action, had the courage and good sense to 
write, ' Burn all this correspondence, let the poor 
little baby go ashore, and don't make a fool of your- 
self.' " ^ 

Miss Luella Miner has devoted the greater part 
of a volume, called " Two Heroes of Cathay," to 
detailing the treatment accorded to two young Chi- 
nese students who had suffered in the Boxer out- 
break in Shansi (and one of whom, at imminent 
risk to himself, brought the first authentic informa- 
tion concerning the fate of the American mission- 
aries in the cities of Tai-ku and Fen-chou fu). It 
is important to notice that these students were pro- 
vided with formal certificates duly issued to them by 
the American consul at Tientsin, and also with a spe- 
cial document from H. E. the Marquis Li Hung- 
chang, the highest and most influential official in 
China. All these, however, counted for less than 

'^ This last case is also cited in " New Forces in Old China," 
by Arthur Judson Brown, D. D., p. i6o. 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 169 

nothing upon their arrival in America, where " they 
were treated by the United States officials at San 
Francisco and other cities with a suspicion and bru- 
tality that were more worthy of Turkey than of free, 
Christian America/' " Arriving at the Golden 
Gate, September 12, 1901, it was not until January 
10, 1903, that they succeeded in reaching Oberlin, 
and those sixteen months were filled with indignities 
from which all the efforts of influential friends, and 
of the Chinese Minister to the United States, were 
unable to protect them." 

No American returning from abroad, whether 
he lands at New York or at San Francisco, feels 
called upon to feel proud of our tariff laws, or of 
the treatment of travellers by our customs officers, 
a treatment which appears to stand in a class by 
itself and not to be paralleled in any other coun- 
try. Within the past two years a case of exceptional 
insult to a Chinese family landing at Boston at- 
tracted wide notice, and the intervention of the 
President of the United States, who, in a message 
to Congress, stated the grievances of the Chinese 
more strongly than they have generally been able 
to do it for themselves. 

It must be evident that there is something radi- 
cally wrong when events of this kind constantly 
recur with the persistence of a repeating decimal, 
and are only prevented by the inflexible rigour of a 
Chief Magistrate who insists upon a " square deal." 

There could scarcely be a more typical exempli- 



I70 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

fication of this spirit of undisguised contempt for 
the amenities of international intercourse than the 
experience of the Chinese exhibitors at the Lou- 
isiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904. 
*' Our Government formally invited China to par- 
ticipate, sending a special commission to Peking 
to urge acceptance. China accepted In good faith, 
and then the Treasury Department at Washington 
drew up a series of regulations requiring " that each 
exhibitor, upon arrival at any seaport of this coun- 
try, should be photographed three times for pur- 
poses of identification, and should file a bond in the 
penal sum of $5,000, the conditions of which were 
that he would proceed directly and by the shortest 
route to St. Louis, would not leave the Exposition 
grounds at any time after his arrival there, and 
would depart for China by the first steamer sailing 
after the close of the Exposition." Thus a sort 
of Chinese rogues' gallery was to be established at 
each port, and the Fair grounds were to be made 
a prison pen for those who had come here as in- 
vited guests of the nation, whose presence and aid 
were needed to make the display a success. It is 
only just to add that, upon a most vigorous pro- 
test made against these courteous regulations by 
the Chinese Government, and a threat to cancel 
their acceptance of our invitation, the rules were 
withdrawn and others more decent were substituted. 
But the fact that they were prepared and seriously 
presented to China shows to what an extent of in jus- 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 171 

tice and discourtesy our mistaken attitude and action 
in regard to Chinese immigration has carried us." ^ 
For many years the legal, extra-legal, and often 
lawless proceedings against the Chinese on the Pa- 
cific coast and elsewhere in America seemed to 
excite no general interest in China, except in a few 
counties in Kuang-tung, whence the greater part of 
the immigrants came. But since the Boxer upris- 
ing China has become as never before unified. In 
the summer of 1905 (simultaneously with Japan's 
naval victories) the usual mutual repulsion of na- 
tives of different Provinces to each other appeared to 
be subordinated to a great wave of national feeling, 
first manifested in the coast cities and rapidly spread- 
ing to the interior. Then began the boycott of Amer- 
ican products, which not only affected the sale of 
kerosene, flour, and piece-goods, but in some in- 
stances broke up American mission schools, made 
travelling unsafe in some parts of China, and called 
forth bitter editorials in Chinese journals, as well 
as cartoons, showing the animosity towards those 
who continued to use American goods. That much 
of this sentiment and its display was manufac- 
tured, does not alter the fact that it produced its 
effects, injuring both sides, but especially the Chi- 
nese themselves. In a case reported from the south 
of China, a youth returned from school where he 
had imbibed the current views, acting in accord- 
ance with the teachings of the Filial Piety Classic, 
asked his father and mother for permission to de- 
6 " New Forces in Old China," pp. 160- 161. 



172 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

stroy a gramophone of American make, which had 
been given to him, on the ground that the Amer- 
icans are bad people who oppress the Chinese. As 
the machine was his own, his parents gave him 
leave to do as he pleased. He then coiled his 
queue on his head, rolled up his sleeves, and taking 
a hatchet into the yard soon reduced the gramo- 
phone to a mass of wreckage. The other members 
of his family were by this time also infected with 
the bacillus anti-Americanus, and went through the 
house gathering up all articles of American origin; 
taking them into the yard they made a bon- 
fire of them, feeling that thus they had been freed 
from an accursed spell. It was in this spirit that 
the boycott, cleverly manipulated by designing men, 
was carried through. The coffin of one of its early 
promoters, who committed suicide in Shanghai, was 
taken to his native place in Canton, where it was 
received, especially by students, with the greatest 
honour. The following year the anniversary of his 
death was celebrated with great ceremony, and were 
the course of events in succeeding centuries to be 
like that of the past, within a few hundred years 
this youth by natural evolution might become the 
god of Patriotism. Throughout this movement, 
which but for its interruption by officials might 
have become a national one, it was instructive to 
observe that its nidus was largely among students, 
many of them half-educated, and more than half- 
intoxicated with new ideas of " the rights of man/' 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 173 

and o£ the essential unity of the Chinese people. 
The anti-American boycott was a storm-signal in 
a region where there are not unlikely to be many 
subsequent typhoons^ That it passed without 
doing far greater damage is no proof that this will 
happen next time ; while the fact that such a sudden 
movement on such a relatively small scale caused 
such a profound sensation in America, is not likely 
to be lost upon the shrewd Chinese. For the first 
time there appeared to be a general recognition on 
the part of the American people that as a people 
we have greatly wronged the Chinese, and it was to 
the thoughtful traveller a significant circumstance 
that unprejudiced and intelligent Americans, when 
the provocation for the Chinese action was ex- 

^ As these lines are committed to paper, a Peking letter in a 
Chinese journal (with an English page) comes under obser- 
vation, in which the writer (one of the Secretaries of the 
Imperial Commission which went abroad to investigate Con- 
stitutional government) says in reference to the proposed re- 
newal of the boycott, and Minister Rockhill's request to have 
it stopped : " I think our merchants, students, and others 
have every right to boycott American goods in China. If the 
American working classes can do as they like toward Chi- 
nese, simply because the latter can live on cheaper food and 
work more hours at less wages, why can we not retaliate by 
boycotting American goods? America dare not treat Japan 
in the same way as China, because our neighbour has a large 
and a strong army and navy, and can compel respect if neces- 
sary by the force of her arms. I hope the Governor-General 
of the two Kuang provinces will not dissolve the boycott asso- 
ciation, as demanded by Mr. Rockhill, until he has received 
some assurance that the Washington Government will act 
fairly toward China by amending the present exclusion laws." 



174 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

plained them, almost invariably exclaimed: '"''/ am 
glad of it! I would have done the same thing in 
their place ! " 

3. Every true American ought to wish well to 
those organisations which have for their object the 
steady and permanent improvement of the condition 
of all grades of workers. Despite a foreign immi- 
gration of a million a year, mainly on the Atlantic 
seaboard, that part of the United States west of 
the Rocky Mountains is yet suffering from the scar- 
city and the cost of labour. Superabundant testi- 
mony from every Pacific State shows that a mod- 
erate immigration of Chinese labourers would vastly 
increase the wealth of these States, and would aid 
in developing resources now running to waste, and 
likely to do so for a long time to come. 

In some industries, such as salmon-canning and 
fruit-raising, and especially wherever irrigation is 
required, the Chinese are found to be indispensable. 
All the northern portion of the United States deeply 
feels the lack of domestic service. Papers, pam- 
phlets, books, have been and are constantly appear- 
ing upon this fertile theme, yet nothing is done, or 
apparently can be done, to mend matters. If it 
were possible (as it is not) to introduce into the 
country a few hundred thousand Chinese servants, 
half to serve as cooks and the remainder as table- 
boys and general house-servants (in each of which 
capacities the Chinese have no superiors in any 
land), it would probably prove the greatest social 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 175 

blessing which could be conferred on the women of 
America. V^ithin five years it would make life 
an entirely different matter, and it would almost 
certainly raise the birth rate. American girls, as 
a rule, positively refuse to go out to domestic serv- 
ice. Foreign " help " is scarce, unsatisfactory, ex- 
pensive, and transient. 

Now why cannot American women be relieved of 
some of their heavy burdens by inviting the Chi- 
nese to fill a now vacant place ? Because the Amer- 
ican labour unions would not permit it. If we under- 
stand by Civilisation " that state of society in which 
the will, the interests, and the passions of the indi- 
vidual (or of a class) are restrained by irresistible 
law for the protection of the whole community, or 
it may be for its advancement toward an end 
deemed by that community in its wisest moments 
permanently desirable," it is evident that the intel- 
ligent tyranny of highly organised capital and the 
relatively unintelligent tyranny of highly organised 
labour, each planning for its own interest, and dis- 
regarding that of the commonwealth, are equally 
opposed not only to true democracy (or republi- 
canism), but to the fundamental principles of civil- 
isation. 

Under present conditions, however, any further 
Chinese labour immigration is not merely impracti- 
cable but undesirable, since it must inevitably add 
to the long catalogue of our crimes against China. 

4. The sketch already given of our treaties with 



176 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

China shows what obligations we have willingly 
assumed. The imperfect summary of the outrages 
against Chinese in America may indicate how 
lightly we have often disregarded those obligations. 
To the remonstrances of China we have been obliged 
to explain that the crimes were committed in " a 
Territory," the designation of a region over which 
the control of the central government is very im- 
perfect ; or perhaps in " a State," a division of the 
country over which in matters of this sort the cen- 
tral government has no control at all. Is it any 
wonder that when a certain Secretary of State re- 
ferred a dissatisfied Chinese Minister to " the Gov- 
ernor of Colorado," that Minister should blandly 
reply that China had no treaties with "the Gov- 
ernor of Colorado " ? And is it surprising that 
such shuffling of responsibility as we invariably re- 
fuse to tolerate from the Chinese Government should 
appear to the Chinese as utterly unworthy of a 
" free and enlightened republic " ? May it not be 
a fortunate circumstance that the question of the 
relation of the individual States to the General Gov- 
ernment in matters covered by treaties is thrust upon 
us in a way which ought to compel a definite set- 
tlement? There is probably little danger that 
Americans will ever tamely surrender any rights 
upon which they ought to insist; but is there not 
grave danger that some special guild or some State 
may deliberately set its own volition, preferences, 
or prejudices against the welfare of the nation as 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 177 

a whole? As long as this is seriously threatened, 
it is difficult to see how we are safe either from the 
risk of domestic strife, or from that of foreign war. 
The " body politic," like any other body, must have 
a head, and must be a unit, otherwise it is unsound, 
which is but another name for insane. It is prob- 
ably the commercial thumb-screw which will prove 
the greatest stimulant to that American good sense 
which in the end is sure to prevail. Mr. Oscar 
Straus, Secretary of Commerce and Labour, discuss- 
ing proposals for reciprocal tariffs, is reported to 
have said : " The situation is serious. The San 
Francisco affair may greatly affect American trade 
with Japan, and there is also ground for fear that 
it may injuriously influence the general friendship 
between the two Powers, a friendship which is 
essential to the development of commerce. Amer- 
ica is not now in a position to criticise any nation or 
individual who endeavours to obtain favours from 
another while at the same time inflicting injuries on 
the latter." Nothing is more probable than that all 
differences both with Japan and China might have 
been avoided by judicious and temperate consulta- 
tion with these Powers as equals, as everyone now 
recognises Japan to be. It is perhaps no exaggera- 
tion to say that a large part of the American peo- 
ple is as much in need of education in this matter as 
are the people of China. The President of the 
United States in his annual message, December, 
1906, embodied the view of a patriot in these words : 



178 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

" Good manners should be an international, not less 
than an individual, attribute. It is unthinkable that 
we continue a policy under which a given locality 
may be allowed to commit a crime against a friendly 
nation, and the Government of the United States 
be limited, not to preventing the commission of the 
crime, but in the last resort to defending the people 
who have committed it against the consequences of 
their own wrong-doing." The root trouble with our 
relations with China, and more recently with Japan, 
is the contemptuous disregard of their point of view 
and the childish insistence upon our own. He who 
supposes that in the face of the rising spirit of the 
Orient we can permanently have one set of immi- 
gration laws for the Chinese, and another for the 
Japanese, is under an illusion which will sooner or 
later be dispelled. 

Another item in the list of American disadvan- 
tages in China is the history of the concession given 
to an American syndicate for building a railway 
from Hankow (Wu-ch'ang) to Canton. The 
northern section of this great trunk line (Peking 
to Hankow) had been entrusted to a Belgian syn- 
dicate, because Belgium is a small Power from 
which nothing is to be feared. But the Belgian 
syndicate was financed in France, and the Russo- 
Chinese Bank (virtually a Russian State Bank) was 
the banker. Thus the Chinese believed themselves 
to be delivered over to a Russo-French combination 
which controlled this initial line through the heart 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 179 

of China. America, traditional " friend of China," 
having no territorial ambitions, was then granted 
the concession for the southern half of this route 
upon the express stipulation that the right should 
not be transferred to any other nationality. 

But the Belgians were eager to get control of 
the American stock, and were actually allowed to 
do so. When the Chinese discovered this fact they 
rightly threatened to cancel the concession. By what 
financial juggling the stock, while actually bought in 
Belgium, was made to appear to be still American, 
is of no importance here. The vital fact was the 
evident breach of faith, which, when it was dis- 
covered, made the people of the Provinces through 
which the line was to run furious. Great mass meet- 
ings (a new phenomenon in China) were held, at 
which, in fluent speech, but in conflicting dialects, 
mutually almost unintelligible, the perfidy of the 
Americans was denounced. It soon became impossi- 
ble either for Americans or for Belgians to build the 
road. The Chinese wished to have an appraisement 
of the value and to pay for what they got, but they 
charge the American syndicate with refusing to sell 
at less than a 50 per cent, profit, so that for what was 
at most worth $2,000,000 they paid $3,750,000 
(gold), borrowing the money to do so from the 
Hongkong Government, doubtless thanking the 
gods of the land and of the grain that they were rid 
of such " friends to China.'* But this was not all. 
Chinese, whose official position entitled them to ex- 



i8o CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

amine the books of the syndicate, testify that they 
were not allowed to do so; that when they did get 
access to them it was discovered that large sums 
had been constantly drawn — amounting at times to 
several thousand dollars — ^by the manager, for which 
no vouchers were forthcoming, and no other ex- 
planation than the compendious phrase " personal 
expenses." Mr. K. G. Kuang, a Taotai, who is an 
engineer on the repurchased (" Yueh-Han") lines, 
is reported in a recent Hongkong paper as saying: 
" That Chinese officials do squeeze, I am not going 
to deny, and I have seen some fairly good examples 
of it. The best samples of it, however, that I have 
ever seen or heard of are insignificant compared 
with things I could tell you about your boasted for- 
eigners [Americans] and our railway. Mind, I 
have the books. Things doubled in price in a 
most mysterious way. We paid high prices, and 
got nothing worth having for our money." 

To the high financiers managing this enterprise, 
seeing nothing beyond the four corners of their 
ledgers, it doubtless seemed (and perhaps still 
seems) a remarkably clever performance. Had the 
railway been well and honestly built, its operation 
by Americans would have opened a viaduct into 
which American machinery and American goods 
would have flowed in an ever-enlarging measure; 
and, better still, America would have been able to 
influence China for good in important ways and at 
a time when she most needed such help. Instead of 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES i8i 

this, we have the boycott, and a mixture of hatred 
and contempt for America and Americans which for 
a long period rendered the Hves of citizens of our 
country in China distinctly a burden. It is not, 
perhaps, too much to say that from a moral, and 
even from a commercial, point of view, this whole 
proceeding was the severest blow ever struck by 
Americans themselves at American interests in the 
Far East. 

Another capital American disadvantage abroad 
has been the baleful shadow thrown by the Spoils 
system at home over appointments of foreign min- 
isters and consuls. There was formerly a baseless 
superstition that the nomination of Minister to 
China " belonged " to the Pacific coast, for no other 
apparent reason than that this portion of the coun- 
try had more experience of the Chinese and more 
antipathy to them than any other. That we have 
had, on the whole, an excellent line of ministers is no 
thanks to the system — or the lack of it. It is only 
recently that a small staff of student-interpreters 
has been attached to the Legation in Peking, from 
among whom interpreters could be appointed to the 
consulates, where the scandals connected with the 
employment of English-speaking Chinese in that 
capacity — or rather, incapacity — have been notori- 
ous. Now that reform of the consular service has 
begun, we may look for its extension. That serv- 
ice has furnished many admirable men, and when 
an American consul is at his best he is not sur- 



i82 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

passed by those of any other country — and also, 
alas! many unworthy ones. A recent British critic 
remarks : " From one end of the country to the 
other, American consuls in the past have been the 
butt of every jest on the subject of the white man's 
so-called superiority over the Chinaman, in the 
matter of * squeeze.' Having, except in certain 
honourable cases, but four, or at the most eight, 
years of office before them, after which they will be 
thrown on the world without pensions, it has be- 
come an understood thing among American consuls 
that any 'plunder' that is to be made, should be 
promptly pocketed. It would be unkind to make 
longer reference to this subject at a time [1905] 
when the conduct of at least three American con- 
sulates in China is engaging the serious attention 
of the Washington State Department. But when 
it has been proved beyond doubt, as it will be, that 
American officials in China connive at acts which 
bring their country into increasing contempt in the 
Far East, it is high time that the matter should be 
properly attended to. There is only one solution — 
it is the creation of an American consular service 
on the English model. Young men of the Yale 
and Harvard stamp, after being properly grounded 
in Chinese for two or three years at Peking, would 
soon make the present state of affairs only a distant 
memory." ^ 

8 "The Re-shaping of the Far East," by B. L. Putnam- 
Weale, vol. ii., pp. 330-331. 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 183 

It is a fact of great importance that Orientals are 
most deeply impressed by what is visible. British 
consulates in Eastern ports are always large and 
well-placed, and belong to the Government. The 
Shanghai consulate is situated in spacious grounds 
on the most eligible site in the International Set- 
tlement. The Germans, the French, and the Japan- 
ese, in like manner, always have suitable and com- 
modious establishments. Alone among the great 
powers, the United States owns no buildings, and 
has nowhere any local habitation, drifting now here 
now there, at the caprice of a landlord (though the 
Consul's locality can, however, almost always be 
discovered by diligent study of the local directory 
and a map). 

American lack of a merchant marine is a serious 
handicap in the Far East. Half a century and more 
ago American clipper ships outsailed all others, and 
reaped the profit of the difference of two cents a 
pound on the first tea cargoes, clearing, perhaps, 
$40,000 in a single trip. In 1848, the arrivals of 
American ships in Chinese waters were dy at Can- 
ton, 20 in Shanghai, and 8 in Amoy, standing first 
after the British. Thirty-five years ago the 
" flowery flag " was everywhere in evidence on the 
China coast, and up the Yang-tzu. Now it is 
seldom seen. With the war between the States our 
merchant marine dwindled; yet, although that war 
terminated more than forty years ago, we are still 
subjected not only to the strange humiliation of see- 



i84 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

ing America's carrying-trade and its profits in the 
hands of other nations, but of witnessing the sudden 
rise and skilful development of German and Japan- 
ese world commerce within the limits of a single 
generation, while we content ourselves with build- 
ing ocean yachts of uncanny proportions, which 
(manned perhaps by a European crew) can gener- 
ally outrace all others. Little Japan, on the other 
hand, has subsidised a great number of steam lines, 
and now has regular and efficient service to Vladi- 
vostock, Korea, all the seaports in China and the 
ports of the Yang-tzu river, Hongkong, the Straits 
Settlements, Bombay, London, Australia, Victoria, 
B. C, Seattle, San Francisco, and the Hawaiian 
Islands, and is now opening new routes to South 
America. Thus the busy hands and tireless brains 
of the Japanese are steadily developing their plan of 
weaving about the globe a network of commercial 
lines which are already making Japan a formidable 
trade-rival of the greatest Occidental countries. 
The apparently impending nationalisation of nearly 
(or possibly quite) all the principal Japanese indus- 
tries will, for aught that can be foreseen, render 
them in their own field irresistible. There is, in like 
manner, a process in active operation which, with 
pardonable exaggeration, has been styled the " Ger- 
manisation of the world," to which in America little 
or no attention seems to have been paid. (For 
some notice of the outline facts, the reader may be 
referred to Chapter X. of Von Schierbrand's " Ger- 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 185 

many, the Welding of a World-Power/' New 
York, 1904.) 

Contrast with this range of facts the case of the 
United States as described (" New York Independ- 
ent," June 21, 1906) by Senator William P. Frye, 
who as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Com- 
merce has devoted more time and study to the ques- 
tion of ship-subsidy than any other American. This 
is his account of the American merchant marine in 
1905 : " Last year, for example, not an American 
vessel entered or cleared, in the foreign trade, in 
Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, 
Russia, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Greece, 
Scotland, or Ireland; only one in France, two in 
Germany, fifty-seven in England — forty-seven being 
credited to the American line, which was started a 
few years ago under the unfortunately amended 
effort which Congress made toward ship-subsidy. 
The other ten steamers were also built in expecta- 
tion of the shipping bill of 1901. For the entire 
continent of Europe there were eighty-eight Amer- 
ican entries out of a total of 4,154; ninety American 
clearances out of a total of 4,490 — forty-seven being 
those of the one American line. A few years ago 
our consul at Bergen, the principal port of Norway, 
imposed certain fees and taxes upon a little vessel, 
the * Hamilton Fish,' which, accidentally, I think, 
entered the port. His attention was afterward 
called to the fact that these fines had been repealed 
by Congress several years before. In his letter re- 



l86 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY, 

funding the charges, the Consul wrote: *The fact 
that I have been Consul here for fifteen years, and 
that this is the only American vessel I have seen, may 
be some excuse for my ignorance of the law/ It 
seems to me that this picture ought to humiliate and 
mortify every patriotic citizen of the United States, 
who glories in the power and the prosperity of his 
country. But it is more than humiliating. It is 
absolutely dangerous to be so utterly dependent on 
the other nations of the world." 

Is it strange that whenever one meets with an 
article in a British or a Continental journal on the 
world's shipping, it is. always assumed that in this 
connection the United States of America is a quan- 
tity wholly negligible? It is but yesterday that 
any serious attempts on our part have been made to 
win the good-will of the South American republics, 
which, had we been wise, we should have employed 
every means to achieve at least a quarter of a cen- 
tury ago, since that good-will, when won, will in its 
effects prove of the highest value both to us and to 
them. As an additional example of American de- 
sire to do justice to China, it deserves mention that, 
in the very first of our treaties, citizens of the United 
States were expressly forbidden to deal in opium 
or in any contraband article of merchandise, and 
the Government promised to take measures to pre- 
vent its flag from being abused by the subjects 
of other nations, as a cover for the violation of 
the laws of the Empire. This agreement was sub- 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 187 

sequently renewed (to the extreme disgust of the 
British Minister) in the treaty of 1880. In the 
early days of the last century, American naval com- 
manders, while notifying shipmasters that if caught 
smuggling opium they must expect no protection 
from the fleet, yet took no steps to prevent such 
violation of the laws, American effort to do simple 
justice to an Oriental people excited on the part of 
those profiting by the opium trade both opposition 
and ridicule, as a showy and an entirely inexpensive 
display of virtue. 

In a recent work already quoted (" The Re-shap- 
ing of the Far East ") the author calls the American 
prohibition of trading in opium a "curious pro- 
vision." In explanation of this remark, he admits 
that " no right-minded man can take exception to 
the general justice of this pronouncement, but with- 
out a full knowledge of the extremely complex 
opium question , , . it Is impossible to understand 
the exact value of a clause. The motives which 
inspired it gave rise to the peculiar and distinct policy 
America has constantly followed in China for a 
period of fifty years, to the serious detriment of the 
real good of the country. For the United States 
. . . have, as it were, approached China in this way 
and with these words : * Circumstances and a for- 
tunate geographical position have given birth to a 
friendly trade between our two peoples, who must, 
in spite of everything, preserve a distinct attitude 
towards one another. Points of disagreement may 



i88 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

arise between us, but we wish to insist on the fact 
that we approach the whole Chinese question from 
the only kind and noble point of view, and that any 
privileges granted us by no means entail any relin- 
quishment of the Emperor's right of eminent domain 
or dominion over his lands and his waters/ And 
if one continued the speech, he might add sotfo voce, 
* And, in spite of everything, we will maintain this 
attitude of friendly solicitude, and will not attempt 
to understand finesses, intrigues, or the actual con- 
ditions of an Eastern country, but shall continue to 
proclaim that China is a sovereign international 
State/ " But Providence had in store swift retri- 
bution for this shameful recognition of China's 
"international rights/' "Had American shipping 
continued to expand after the * forties ' and the con- 
clusion of the first treaty in the way which had been 
so noticeable in the first decades of the nineteenth 
century, there is no saying what the maintenance 
of an attitude adapted only for intercourse between 
Western peoples, or those which have been thor- 
oughly Europeanised, would have brought about. 
But the sudden decline and subsequent almost 
complete disappearance of the American flag from 
Chinese waters, made the position of the United 
States in China for many years one of meagre 
importance/' It is upon this lofty level of morality 
that negotiations with China (and with other 
Oriental countries as well) have often been con- 
ducted. The same view, even less obliquely ex- 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 189 

pressed, was embodied forty years ago in the 
remark of a French char ge-d' affaires in regard to 
the translation by Dr. Martin of Wheaton's " Inter- 
national Law " into the Chinese language, who said 
to Mr. Burlingame : " Who is this man who is go- 
ing to give the Chinese an insight into our European 
international law? Kill him— choke him off; he'll 
make us endless trouble." ^ 

American attitude in regard to the terrible traffic 
in Chinese coolies was similar to that toward opium, 
but in this, happily, she did not stand alone. The 
evident intention in the circular notes of the late 
Secretary Hay, to secure justice to China, did not a 
little to convince the more intelligent Chinese of the 
essential good-will of the United States. It is true 
that the actual importance of the international agree- 
ments relating to the " open door " were misunder- 
stood, and greatly overrated in America, where the 
wide chasm between promise and execution, in mat- 
ters relating to the Far East, has not obtruded itself 
upon public attention. Secretary Hay took, indeed, 
a wise and commendable stand; but little or noth- 
ing came of it, because we were not at all prepared 
to back up our opinions with force, and without 
force, the Far Eastern question would never have 
reached its present stage. It was well to insist upon 
the opening of certain " ports " in Manchuria, and 
the limitation of the area of the war was a great in- 
9" A Cycle of Cathay," by W. A. P. Martin, D. D., LL. D., 
p. 234. 



190 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

ternational benefit. But it was not. diplomatic notes, 
but Japanese armies, which settled the matter. 

An American asset of value in China has been the 
high character of the heads of some of the great 
mercantile firms which flourished two and three gen- 
erations ago, but these large houses have all disap- 
peared and have left few successors. It is not so 
much by specifications in treaties, as by the quality 
of its men, that the keen-sighted Oriental judges a 
people. It is a great advantage that we have now 
an American Asiatic Association, with a secretary 
whose vigilance nothing escapes, and with a monthly 
journal which serves to concentrate light, and to 
deepen the interest of intelligent Americans in the 
Far East. 

Complementary to this organisation are the 
American Associations of China and Japan, each of 
which acts as an eye, an ear, and a voice. No 
American in America, who cares to be informed as 
to American relations with the Far East, has any 
further excuse for ignorance; and no American in 
the Far East, however remote from treaty ports may 
be his residence, need be unenlightened about cur- 
rent questions, or unrepresented in an expression of 
American public opinion. The fact that the present 
President of the United States is a man of alert 
mind, broad knowledge, instantaneous comprehen- 
sion, inflexible integrity, resolutely bent on civic, na- 
tional, and international righteousness, and that the 
administration of the State Department has for 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 191 

many years been guided by the same principles, is 
among the most hopeful signs of an improved and 
elevated national life. 

An evidence of the growing appreciation at Wash- 
ington of the increasing importance of our foreign 
relations was the passage (June, 1906) by Con- 
gress, of a bill for the establishment of a long-needed 
United States Court for China. This is " not an 
isolated act on the part of the Government, but, like 
the recent legislation for the reorganisation of the 
Consular Service, is one of a series of acts looking 
toward the improvement of our relations with China 
and other nations." 

Within a very brief period after the opening of 
the Court by Judge L. R. Wilfley, formerly Attor- 
ney-General of the Philippine Islands (December 
17, 1906), important civil suits had been heard and 
adjusted; gamblers and sharpers had been tried, 
convicted, and sentenced; and all the disreputable 
houses kept by alleged " American " women had 
been closed (more than sixty of them leaving the 
port), and such clamour raised as to show that many 
" vested interests " had been hard hit, now that the 
fair name of America can no longer be trailed in the 
mire. 

After this far too-extended discussion of Amer- 
ican advantages and disadvantages in China, the 
question occurs and recurs, why is it that as com- 
pared with its capacities and its opportunities, our 
country counts for so little, when it might count for 



192 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

so much? To this, different replies may rightly be 
given. 

Perhaps the greatest of all our disabilities in com- 
petition with other nations and races is our appar- 
ently incurable unwillingness to recognise our own 
defects. We are intoxicated with our wealth, our 
numbers, our resources. Books like Mr. Carnegie's 
" Triumphant Democracy," which flatter the na- 
tional vanity without really touching any of the 
great underlying problems of our national life, find 
quick response among the multitude; but the voice 
of the more thoughtful scholars and journals is lost 
in the din and dust of daily activities. Competition 
was never so keen, business methods never so un- 
compromising. The most alert and the most per- 
sistent will win, and others will drop out and be 
forgotten. We are too engrossed to be argued with 
or enlightened. The motto of the whole American 
business world might well be: " Do not talk to the 
Motorman/' Education is too often valued not for 
what there is in it, but for what can be got out of it. 
Intellectually, the cardinal sin of Americans is super- 
ficiality. 

Some years ago the late Bishop of London, Dr. 
Creighton, published an article in the " Contempo- 
rary Review," " in which he declared as the result of 
his great experience as a teacher, that the English 
people, as a whole, do not care to gain knowledge, 
believed that it is no advantage to be learned, and 
were inclined to undervalue scholars. They held 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 193 

that knowledge of one's work, as distinguished from 
learning, is desirable, but that learning is a load 
for the mind, rather than a source of strength." 
The journal from which the above is quoted (the 
" New York Observer ") adds that " if this is true 
of England, much more is it the case in America. 
As a nation, we set no value upon learning which 
is deep and recondite." " The truth is that neither 
Americans nor Englishmen have the plodding power 
of the Germans. They are willing to work hard 
for a special object, to stake their whole physical 
and mental force upon the attainment of an end ; but 
they will not toil for toil's sake. If knowledge is 
necessary in order to gain wealth or fame, political 
or social position, they will yield to the necessity; 
but in America, at least, this seldom happens." In 
the keen competition of the twentieth century the 
best equipped, the most foresightedly intelligent, 
nation will out-distance the rest. Efficiency of all 
varieties is the keynote of modern business life. 
Whatever promotes it is to be cultivated, whatever 
hinders it is to be discarded. And what has all 
this to do with American success in the Orient ? A 
business man of wide experience in different Far 
Eastern countries was asked which of the many 
nationalities represented there furnished the best 
business men, and instantly and unhesitatingly 
he replied : " The Chinese," explaining that it was 
on account of those race-qualities which we have 
already mentioned. "And who are the worst?" 



194 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

After a thoughtful pause he answered: "Amer- 
icans. They are too impatient, they insist on big 
returns, they are unwilHng to bear losses, they will 
not condescend to small matters, and they want their 
returns at once — or they will quit." 

Can it be true that as a nation we are afflicted with 
a myopia preventing us from seeing beyond the 
shortest distance, and with a careless optimism 
which, without fatiguing itself by any laborious 
examination of existing conditions, is content to fall 
back on that consoling generalisation (cited some 
years since in a review article by one of our leading 
authorities on economics), that a special Providence 
watches over the welfare of fools, children, and the 
United States? 



VIII 

AMERICA'^S OPPORTUNITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 
IN CHINA 

That the American Republic and the Chinese Em- 
pire must have an important relation to one another 
is an idea which has long been more and more forc- 
ing itself upon the attention of thoughtful men. 
One of the most clear-sighted of American states- 
men gave explicit expression to this more than half- 
a-ceritury ago. In a speech in the United States 
Senate, July 29, 1852, Mr. William H. Seward 
said : " Even the discovery of this continent and 
its islands, and the organisation of society and gov- 
ernment upon them, grand and important as these 
events have been, were but conditional, preliminary, 
and ancillary to the more sublime result now in the 
act of consummation — the reunion of the two civili- 
sations, which, parting on the plains of Asia four 
thousand years ago, and travelling ever after in 
opposite .directions around the world, now meet 
again on the coasts and islands of the Pacific Ocean. 
Certainly no mere human event of equal dignity and 
importance has ever occurred upon the earth. It 
will be followed by the equalisation of the condition 
of society and the restoration of the unity of the 
human family. Who does not see that henceforth 
every year European commerce, European politics, 

195 



196 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

European thoughts and European activity, although 
actually gaining greater force, and European con- 
nections, although actually becoming more intimate, 
will nevertheless ultimately sink in importance; 
while the Pacific Ocean, its shores, its islands, and 
the vast regions beyond, will become the chief theatre 
of events in the world's great hereafter? Who 
does not see that this movement must effect our 
own complete emancipation from what remains of 
European influence and prejudice, and in turn 
develop the American opinion and influence which 
shall remould constitutional laws and customs in the 
land that is first greeted by the rising sun?" At 
the time when these words were uttered they must 
have appeared to many hearers and readers as the 
wild dreams of an unfettered fancy, but those who 
are living to-day are better able to appreciate their 
deep significance. 

It is altogether beside the purpose of this volume 
to discuss the commercial relations of the United 
States and the Far East, which are the subject of an 
unending series of Consular Reports, and of articles 
in journals of all descriptions. For a comprehen- 
sive view of the economic aspects of this subject 
the reader is referred to Dr. Josiah Strong's " Ex- 
pansion," which condenses into less than 300 pages 
a convincing array of facts and arguments.^ 

1 " Expansion Under New-World Conditions," by Josiah 
Strong, New York, 1900. See also von Schierbrand's " Amer- 
ica, Asia, and the Pacific," New York, 1904, where Dr. Strong's 
arguments are repeated and amplified. 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 197 

The following is a brief summary of the author's 
conclusions : 

1. The astonishing development of energy and 
wealth which has subdued the American continent 
makes America the most forceful and resourceful 
nation in the world. With ever-increasing wealth 
and energy, we shall have at home an ever-decreas- 
ing opportunity to invest and to apply them. Our 
young men and our capital will, therefore, increas- 
ingly go abroad, and be found wherever undeveloped 
resources and sleepy eighteenth-century methods 
create an opportunity. Thus America will increas- 
ingly acquire individual and corporate rights all 
over the world. 

2. American manufacturing supremacy gives 
every promise of permanence. Our manufacturing 
interests must inevitably become relatively greater, 
while our agricultural interests become relatively 
smaller. Our national welfare will be increasingly 
dependent on foreign markets. We are already de- 
pendent on such markets, not simply for industrial 
prosperity, but for political and social health. 

3. The awakening of China is a fact of world 
importance and of profound significance. To raise 
the standard of living in China to the average 
standard of the United States, would be equivalent, 
so far as our markets are concerned, to the creation 
of five Americas. To raise the standard of living 
in China fifty per cent, would, commercially speak- 
ing, add 200,000,000 to the world's population. 



198 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

4. The completion of the new Ishmian Canal, by 
making a geographical change of the first magni- 
tude, will have a profound effect upon the world, 
and will confer on America the commercial su- 
premacy of the Pacific. 

5. The Pacific is to become the centre of the 
world's population, commerce, wealth, and power. 
It is to be also the arena where the great races of 
the future will settle the question of free institu- 
tions or absolutism for all mankind. 

6. We are now entering on a new world life, of 
which America is an organic part. This creates 
new necessities and new obligations, which it will 
be impossible to evade. This is a commercial age, 
and commercial considerations are the mainspring 
of policies. It is the supreme interests of nations, 
or what appears to be such, which shape their 
politics both at home and abroad, and in this day 
industrial and commercial interests are supreme. 
Questions of finance, of tariff, of expansion, of 
colonial policy, of the open door, dominate politics, 
national and international, because they profoundly 
affect industry and commerce. It is idle to suppose 
that we can be a part, and a principal part, of the 
organised commercial and industrial life of the 
world and yet maintain a policy of Isolation. 

It is of pressing importance that all Americans, 
and especially the large and influential class of edu- 
cated Americans, should comprehend the nature of 
these world-problems by which we are now to be 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 199 

more and more confronted. Our cousins across the 
water have a coterie of narrow-gauge thinkers 
whom they dub " little Englanders." The type in 
America is only too familiar, and nothing but con- 
tinued hypodermic injections of knowledge can be 
expected to work a radical cure. It is an excellent 
thing that Senators, Representatives, business men^ 
and men of leisure should personally visit Eastern 
lands to gain first-hand impressions otherwise un- 
attainable; but it is highly unfortunate that the 
stay of almost all travellers is too brief to be of 
value, and that so few of them have any taste or 
talent for a careful study of existing conditions, but 
are content to accept a few generalisations, often 
second or third hand, and return to America radiat- 
ing a genial omniscience epitomised in the recurring 
phrase : " / tell you, sir! " and with an ignorance 
which is only more elaborate than it was before. 
These are the people who, as Prof. Chamberlain of 
Tokio remarks, write those letters and volumes of 
travel which are mainly composed of " slush en- 
livened by statistics." 

If the manufacturers and the merchants of the 
United States were wise in their generation, they 
would equip frequent expeditions to find and make 
openings for American enterprise in the Far East, 
just as men of other nations have long been doing; 
nor would they be deluded into supposing that be- 
cause we have " a big country " we can perma- 
nently get on without world markets. It is only 



200 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

in the Scilly Islands that the inhabitants are re- 
ported to " make their living by doing each other's 
washing." In Colquhoun's " Mastery of the Pa- 
cific " it is assumed that the control of the commerce 
of this mightiest of oceans will ultimately fall to 
America. But before this can take place there must 
be not only a revolutionary change in our shipping 
laws, but also a material abatement of our national 
self-conceit and superciliousness. " Discussing the 
question as to what constitutes superiority and in- 
feriority of race, Benjamin Kidd declares that * we 
shall have to set aside many of our old ideas on 
the subject. Neither in respect alone of colour, nor 
of descent, nor even the possession of high intel- 
lectual capacity, can science give us any warrant 
for speaking of one race as superior to another. 
Real superiority is the result, not so much in any- 
thing inherent in one race as distinguished from 
another, as of the operation upon a race and within 
it of certain uplifting forces. Any superiority that 
we now possess is due to the action upon us of these 
forces. But they can be brought to bear upon the Chi- 
nese as well as upon us. We should avoid the pop- 
ular mistake of looking at the Chinese * as if they 
were merely animals with a toilet, and never see 
the great soul in a man's face.' " ^ " There is per- 
haps no truer sign of the essentially provincial char- 
acter of the self-centred white people than their 
failure to discover and appreciate the noble and the 

2 " New Forces in Old China," p. 33. 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 201 

beautiful in the great civilisation of the Orient. 
We have been blinded to these by the selfishness of 
our lives, the greed of our ambitions, and the pride 
of our might." ^ It is often blithely assumed by 
Americans that although we are not at present in 
a mood to interest ourselves in the Orient, at some 
future time, when we may have more leisure, we 
will perhaps look into the matter. An American 
Consul who has with some difficulty discovered an 
opening which by prompt dexterity American enter- 
prise might best fill, will tell you that he wrote to 
some of the large " home firms," giving details, 
and advising them to send out a man to seize the 
opportunity, only to receive in due time a curt reply 
that provided the Consul will guarantee their agent 
the sum of not less than (say) eight dollars a day 
from the time of boarding his trans-Pacific steamer 
he will be sent — otherwise not. And this at a time 
when permanent representatives of companies and 
syndicates from every country in Europe have long 
and patiently been watching for chances to roast 
their chestnuts at the Oriental fire! 

There is a German proverb which speaks in criti- 
cism of him who sits in an armchair with his mouth 
wide open, waiting for roasted pigeons to fly in- 
side. There is likewise a Chinese adage which 
alludes unsympathetically to him who, finding a 
hare asleep, first wakes him, and then endeavours to 
run him down. At an annual dinner of the Amer- 

3 "The White Peril," by Sydney L. Gulick, D. D. 



202 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

ican Asiatic Association, H. E. Wu Ting-fang, then 
Chinese Minister to the United States, said : " We 
all know that China is one of the greatest markets 
of the world, with a population of four hundred 
millions that must be fed and clothed, and must 
receive the necessaries of Hfe. She wants your 
wheat, your cotton, your iron and steel, and your 
manufactured articles of the New England States. 
She wants steel rails, electrical machines, and an 
hundred other things that she cannot get at home 
and must get abroad. It is a fine field for Amer- 
ican industry to fill these wants. It is particularly 
easy for you to reach China on account of the fine 
highway you have on the Pacific, and especially de- 
sirable that you do so, since you have become our 
next-door neighbour in the Philippines. If you do 
not come up to your own expectations and meet 
this opportunity, it is your own fault." ^ 

To this corresponds the cynical remark of the late 
Marquis Li Hung-chang, then the foremost states- 
man in China, who perfectly understood the weak 
points of foreign peoples : " If Americans want the 
trade of China they must come after it." In the 
able and comprehensive discussion (already referred 
to) of " The Commercial Prize of the Orient," the 
Hon. O. P. Austin is at pains to show how and 
why we may expect to increase our share of the 
Oriental trade and especially of its imports. " The 
Orient produces large quantities of the class of 

* Quoted in "Expansion," pp. 132-133. 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 203 

merchandise which we must import, and imports 
equally large quantities of the class of merchan- 
dise which we produce and desire to sell. Our 
imports of raw silk, and tea, and hemp, and jute, 
and tin, and goat-skins, and other articles of 
the class produced in the Orient amount to 
hundreds of millions of dollars annually, and our 
imports from Asia and Oceania have grown from 
less than 32 millions of dollars in 1870 to 190 mil- 
lions in 1904. The Orient is a large importer of 
cotton and cotton goods, mineral oils, manufactures 
of iron and steel, flour and meats, of which the 
United States is the world's largest producer." In 
the same way, " there seems no good reason why 
we should not supply at least one-half of the cotton 
goods imported into the Orient, instead of less than 
one-tenth, as at present." Mineral oil, iron and 
steel, are products of which the East is rapidly 
increasing its imports, and we are the largest pro- 
ducers of these in the world. " The natural advan- 
tages which we have in supplying that section of 
the world were shown by the large orders for flour 
and meat and many other articles which were 
poured in upon the dealers of the United States at 
the opening of the Russo-Japanese war, and these 
hurry orders came from both Governments, which 
thus agreed at least upon one point — that the United 
States is a natural source of supply for that great sec- 
tion, at least in these important requirements." The 
Isthmian Canal will bring into direct water connec- 



204 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

tion with all parts of the Orient " our Mississippi 
Valley, the world's greatest producer of breadstuffs 
and meat; the South, the world's greatest producer 
of cotton; our great iron fields, the world's largest 
producer of that important metal, and our manu- 
facturing system, which is the greatest in the world. 
When all these great fields of supply are given 
direct water-communication with the Orient, they 
should be able largely to increase our contributions 
to her requirements, and the hundred millions of 
merchandise which we now send each year to the 
Orient should grow to at least five hundred millions." 
But this is not all. Of what H. E. Wu Ting-fang 
called " our fine highway " Mr. Austin remarks : 
" We have a much greater frontage on the Pacific 
Ocean than any other nation, and better harbours, 
not only upon the mainland, but also the principal 
island harbours of the entire ocean. Our national 
frontage on the Pacific, considering only the number 
of nautical miles to be protected, patrolled, or lighted, 
is 12,500, while that of the United Kingdom is 
10,000, Russia a little over 6,000, Japan a little less 
than 5,000, and China little more than 3,000 miles, 
so that our frontage upon the Pacific exceeds 
that of any other nation." In addition to all this, 
and the possession of the Hawaiian Islands, Wake 
Island, Guam, and the Philippines, as "great nat- 
ural telegraph poles " for a trans-Pacific cable, 
there is one other unique advantage which Mr. Aus- 
tin illustrates by a map. " It will be seen that the 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 205 

equatorial current begins its westward movement 
at the very point in which vessels from an Isthmian 
Canal would enter the Pacific, and moves steadily 
westward to the vicinity of the Philippines, then 
turning northward along the coast of China and 
Japan is deflected to the east, flows eastwardly across 
the North Pacific to the American coast, and then 
moves down the western coast of the United States 
to the point of beginning. The air currents, while 
their exact location is somewhat affected by the 
changes of the seasons, follow practically the same 
lines, and are equally certain and reliable." " This 
steady, permanent flow of air and water will never 
cease as long as the earth revolves to the east and the 
great bodies of land and water retain their present 
relative positions — must always give to the North 
American continent the advantage in the commerce 
of the Pacific." But in order to reap the full benefits 
of these immense natural advantages we must, as 
a preliminary, have and hold the good-will of the 
East. In every business, good-will, although intangi- 
ble, is a valuable asset. The two Chinese characters 
meaning " business " literally signify " a matter 
of the affections" {shih-ch'ing), a most philo- 
sophical concept, since no one wishes to keep up 
relations with another who abuses him. In an in- 
terview in February, 1906, the vice-president of the 
Pacific Mail Company is reported as saying : " I 
suppose that no race has ever dealt with another so 
unfairly as we have dealt with the Chinese. The 



2o6 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

history of the Exclusion Act makes the blood of any 
intelligent Chinese boil. Officials having to do with 
the Chinese on the Pacific Coast have proceeded on 
the theory that their popularity would grow in di- 
rect ratio to the number of Chinese they kept out — 
almost, I might say, to the brutality of their treat- 
ment. And yet a boycott of our own was the 
greatest cause of the boycott on American goods.'* 
Although this topic has been already discussed in 
another connection, it deserves repeated mention, 
because of the baseless impression that despite our 
national eccentricities Americans must be popular in 
China. Whenever we learn to do even-handed jus- 
tice we may again become so, but not earlier. The 
city of San Francisco was thrown to the ground in 
one minute of solar time because it was built upon 
a geologic " fault." Let us see to it that our coun- 
try's policy is no longer based upon a moral fault, 
which must in the end bring disaster. But there 
is very much more for us to do than merely to set 
our own house in comparative order. 

In the harbour of New York there is a statue of 
gigantic size presented by a sister republic repre- 
senting " Liberty Enlightening the World." It has 
always been a favourite assumption of Americans 
that if we have something to learn, we have also 
much to teach. Just what that is admits of differ- 
ent answers, especially as we are painfully aware 
that American ideals and American realisation of 
those ideals are by no means coincident. It is 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 207 

agreed, among ourselves at least, that an hundred 
and thirty years of American autonomy cover many 
important achievements of more or less realised 
ideals. Among these may be named : 

The combination of divergent and heretofore con- 
flicting local governments into a durable common- 
wealth—" E Pluribus Unum." 

Absolute separation of Church and State. 

Trust in the People themselves to manage their 
own affairs. 

Manhood suffrage under appropriate limitations. 

Universal compulsory education. 

The largest opportunity for the individual, " The 
republic is opportunity," 

A sphere for the influence of woman far wider 
than was ever before thought possible. 

An overwhelming sentiment in favour of peace 
and order, and in favour of all forms of arbitration. 

Although some of these ideas may have been 
first developed in America, none of them are pro- 
tected by international copyright. On the con- 
trary, we recognise (in theory) the desirability and 
perhaps even the possibility of their wide (we need 
not say universal) extension. The progress of the 
world always comes from the reception and the 
adoption of new ideas, and some of these concep- 
tions are being pondered as never before. At a 
time when the three leading countries of Europe are 
torn with controversies over the adjustment of the 
interests of religion and the government, America 



2o8 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY, 

is in that line, at least, as tranquil as the summer 
sea. Questions like those which have been named 
are neither Occidental nor Oriental, but belong to 
mankind. One American missionary — Dr. Guido 
Verbeck — was more influential than any other fac- 
tor in bringing about that complete religious liberty 
which is now admiringly witnessed in Japan. In 
China, after millenniums of prosy monotony, in an 
eddy of reaction against innovations, an Imperial 
edict has recently been issued virtually establishing 
a Confucian State religion (although, as in other 
similar instances, whether anything comes of it is 
another matter). Has America any useful experi- 
ence to offer to China ? The Far East has for ages 
been constitutionally immobile. Now it is all awake, 
and a part of it is alert. 

In China, woman, as such, has been unhonoured, 
rather than dishonoured, having no personal name, 
but only two surnames, that of her own and that of 
her husband's family. The " three subjections " 
bounded her career — in childhood to her parents, in 
marriage to her husband, in widowhood to her sons. 
With the new ideas now pouring into China this 
state of things cannot permanently continue. A' 
Chinese girl in a Shanghai mission school prepared 
an original essay on the theme : " Liberty, equality, 
fraternity, inherent in the idea of Man." To an 
average Chinese woman the American educated 
woman seems to belong to a different range of ex- 
istence — and so she does. But is it not remarkable 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 209 

that before American colleges for Chinese women in 
China have had time to be acclimated they have 
suddenly become the ideal of the Chinese them- 
selves? — a change as revolutionary as that from 
pounding rice with a stone pestle in a mortar to 
hulling it in a mill worked by electricity, generated 
by water-power. American ideas and ideals have 
already been introduced into China, where they are 
already working silently and out of sight. Our 
greatest influence must come through the lives of the 
great men and the noble women with whose careers 
our brief annals are filled. It is interesting to note 
the effect upon Orientals of a study of the life of 
George Washington. Nearly sixty years ago (as 
Dr. Speer in the volume already quoted records) 
a Chinese scholar in a " General Survey of Mari- 
time Countries," prepared a special chapter on the 
achievements and character of Washington, of 
which the following is the closing paragraph: 
** Surely Washington was an extraordinary man. 
His successes as a soldier were more rapid than 
those of Sheng and Kuang, and in personal courage 
he was superior to Tsao-pi and Liu-pang. With 
the two-edged sword (of justice) he established 
the tranquillity of the country over an area of sev- 
eral thousand miles. He refused to receive pecuni- 
ary recompense. He laboured to rear an elective 
system of government. Patriotism like this is to 
be commended under the whole heavens. Truly it 
reminds us of our own three ancient dynasties! 



210 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

In administering the government he fostered vir- 
tue, he avoided war, and he succeeded in making his 
country superior to all other nations. I have seen 
his portrait. His countenance exhibits great men- 
tal power. Who must not concede to him the char- 
acter of an extraordinary man ? " 

Washington was strongest at just those points 
where the Oriental is weakest, and the Oriental rec- 
ognises that fact at a glance. Views hke this of our 
greatest men have been fermenting in the minds of 
Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans for a long time. 
A recent paper mentions that in a popular vote of 
the scholars in a Japanese school as to their favour- 
ite hero, Washington received a few more than 
sixty votes, and Lincoln almost as many, while the 
great Japanese war-Armiral Togo did not rise to 
forty ballots ! The new China is to be officered and 
piloted by new men. All the impulses which have 
brought about the renaissance of Japan, and those 
which are yet to do the same for China, are im- 
pulses from without, and not from within. China 
is now turning to other nations for guidance and 
for help in educating her young men. It is but a 
few years since she sent her first students to Japan ; 
but during the past two years the hegira of Chinese 
youth to the Island Empire is probably without his- 
toric parallel. Japan no doubt expects to pay back 
her age-long debt to China by exerting there a dom- 
inating influence as a step toward her anticipated 
hegemony of Asia. Even in the stress and strain 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 211 

of the Russian war she set apart numbers of her 
army and naval officers, as well as civilians, for the 
instruction of the Chinese students. Friction arose 
between these scholars and the Chinese Minister 
to Japan, who was a Manchu, and the rising spirit 
of Chinese patriotism renders the whole Manchu 
race especially obnoxious to young China. 

Freed from the wonted restrictions of home and 
of the Confucian training in which they were born, 
the Chinese students resented Japanese control, and 
several thousands of them returned to China, some- 
times abusing the opportunity afforded them by 
their travel to write and to speak in a way to excite 
anti-dynastic feeling, already far too strong for 
safety. At the present time it is estimated that 
there are about 15,000 Chinese in Japan, nearly all 
in Tokio, representing almost every Province of 
the Empire. 

The public vice which is so conspicuous a feature 
of the capital of Japan has never been known in 
China. It has demoralised very many of the Chinese 
students. Some of them have even thrown off the 
trammels of Confucianism, and are openly adopting 
an attitude of contempt for the ancient Sages. One 
such remarked to a foreigner : " It was old K'ung 
[Confucius] who ruined China ! " The only creed 
'(aside from Christianity) available to replace the 
teaching of China's hereditary masters, is Epicure- 
anism, which has hitherto never been in China a 
recognised cult. For China itself such a state of 



212 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

things is an alarming symptom and a menace to 
her relations not with Japan only, but with other 
nations as well.^ The Court in Peking has with 
excellent reason long looked with disfavour upon 
this unbalanced influence of Japan, fearing espe- 
cially its anti-Manchu tendencies, but the Gov- 
ernment is apparently quite helpless to stem the 
swelling tide. 

Under circumstances such as these, is it not the 
part of wisdom for us to put forth our best exer- 
tions to deflect this stream of students to our own 
shores, not for the good of China alone, but also 
for the welfare of America and of the world? Our 
former ill-treatment of those who in the past have 
desired to come is the greater reason for the adop- 
tion of this policy upon a large scale. A Chinese 
gentleman once said to the writer that he would 
much have preferred to have his son study in the 
United States, but having vainly spent six months 
of time and much money in the effort to get him into 
the country, he had sent him to more hospitable 
England. The unmitigated folly of our course of 
action is now becoming manifest even to ourselves. 
It only requires an educated public opinion not 
merely to remove restrictions, but to extend a wel- 
come to Chinese students to our educational institu- 
tions all over the land. 

s It is interesting to know that the international committee 
of the Y. M. C. A,, with characteristic foresight and energy, 
has undertaken a work of broad range among these students, 
from which large results are sure to flow. 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 213 

As an excellent specimen of various papers which 
have been indited upon this subject of national and 
international importance, the reader may be glad 
to have the opportunity of perusing one v^ritten 
early in 1906 by a distinguished American educator, 
submitted to the President of the United States, and 
privately circulated. 

" Memorandum concerning the sending of an 
Educational Commission to China, by Edmund J. 
James, President of the University of Illinois. 

" The recent developments in the Orient have 
made it apparent that China and the United States 
are destined to come into ever more intimate re- 
lations, social, intellectual, and commercial. The 
Chinese will come to this country for the purpose of 
studying our institutions and our industry. A 
striking evidence of this fact is afforded by the work 
of the Chinese Commission now or lately in the 
United States. Our own people will go to China 
for the purpose of studying Chinese institutions and 
industry. Anything which will stimulate this mu- 
tual intercourse and increase mutual knowledge 
must redound to the benefit of both nations. 

" A great service would be done to both coun- 
tries if the Government of the United States would 
at the present juncture send an educational com- 
mission to China, whose chief function should be to 
visit the Imperial Government, and with its consent 
each of the provincial governments of the Em- 
pire, for the purpose of extending through the au- 



214 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

thority of these Provinces to the young Chinese who 
may go abroad to study, a formal invitation on the 
part of our American institutions of learning to avail 
themselves of the facilities of such institutions. The 
appointment of such a commission would draw still 
closer the bonds which unite these two great na- 
tions in sympathy and friendship, 

" China is upon the verge of a revolution. It will 
not, of course, be as rapid as was the revolution in 
Japan, if for no other reason, because of the vast 
numbers of the nation and the enormous extent of 
its territory. But it is not believed that this rev- 
olution which has already begun can ever again 
suffer more than a temporary backset and reaction. 

" Every great nation in the world will inevi- 
tably be drawn into more or less intimate relations 
with this gigantic development. It is for them to 
determine, each for itself, what these relations shall 
be, — whether those of amity and friendship and 
kindness, or those of brute force and * the mailed 
fist.' The United States ought not to hesitate as 
to its choice in this matter. The nation which suc- 
ceeds in educating the young Chinese of the pres- 
ent generation will be the nation which for a given 
expenditure of effort will reap the largest possible 
returns in moral, intellectual, and commercial in- 
fluence. If the United States had succeeded thirty- 
five years ago, as it looked at one time as if it 
might, in turning the current of Chinese students 
to this country, and had succeeded in keeping that 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 215 

current large, we should to-day be controlling the 
development of China in that most satisfactory and 
subtle of all ways, — through the intellectual and 
spiritual domination of its leaders. 

" China has already sent hundreds, indeed thou- 
sands, of its young men into foreign countries to 
study. It is said that there are more than five 
thousand Chinese studying in Japan, while there are 
many hundreds in Europe — three hundred in the 
little state of Belgium alone. This means that when 
these Chinese return from Europe they will advise 
China to imitate Europe rather than America, — 
England, France, and Germany, instead of the 
United States. It means that they will recommend 
English and French and German teachers and en- 
gineers for employment in China in positions of 
trust and responsibility rather than American. It 
means that English, French, and German goods will 
be bought instead of American, and that industrial 
concessions of all kinds will be made to Europe in- 
stead of to the United States. Now it is natural, of 
course, that the vast majority of Chinese youth 
should go to Japan to study rather than to European 
countries or the United States, owing to its prox- 
imity, to racial affinity, and to the smaller cost of 
travel and living. On the other hand, the Chinese are 
in many points jealous of the Japanese, and, other 
things being equal, would often prefer to send their 
young people to other countries. Among all these 
countries the United States would be the most nat- 



2i6 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

ural one to choose, if it had not been for our anti- 
Chinese legislation, and still more for the unfriendly 
spirit in which we have administered this legisla- 
tion, for the Chinese Government at any rate never 
really objected to our legislation directed toward 
preventing the immigration of Chinese labourers, but 
only to the manner in which we passed such laws 
and the way in which we administered them. 

" We are the natural friends of the Chinese. We 
have been their real political friends. We have 
stood between the Chinese Empire and dismember- 
ment; we have come more nearly giving them the 
square deal in all our relations in the East than any 
other nation. They are consequently less suspi- 
cious of us, as far as our politics are concerned, 
than of any other people. Their justly sore feel- 
ing over our treatment of Chinese gentlemen in our 
custom-houses will yield quickly to fair and de- 
cent conduct on our part. It is believed that by 
a very small effort the good-will of the Chinese may 
now be won over in a large and satisfactory way. We 
may not admit the Chinese labourer, but we can 
treat the Chinese student decently, and extend to him 
the facilities of our institutions of learning. Our col- 
leges and universities are to-day far better adapted 
for giving the average Chinese student what he de- 
sires in the way of European civilisation, than the 
schools and colleges of any European country. We 
need but to bring these facts to their attention in 
order to secure their attendance here, with all the 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 217 

beneficial results which would flow from such an 
opportunity to influence the entire current of their 
thought and feelings. 

" If a commissioner with one or two assistants 
were sent to China representing the American Gov- 
ernment in a formal way in the field of education, 
and should extend to the Chinese people, through 
the Government at Peking and through the pro- 
vincial governments, a cordial invitation from the 
United States, and from the institutions of higher 
learning in the United States to avail themselves of 
these advantages exactly as they would if they were 
their own institutions, it is apparent that a great 
impression might be produced upon the Chinese 
people. The Chinese appreciate, as well as we, 
the compliment implied in sending a formal com- 
mission of this sort to another country. It is a 
recognition such as any country might be proud of, 
and the Chinese are a singularly proud and sensi- 
tive people in everything that concerns their own 
dignity. 

" Such a commission going to each of the Prov- 
inces would have an opportunity to give the Chi- 
nese Government much information about the 
United States and its educational institutions; and 
as the inquiries of such governments would not be 
limited, of course, to education and educational 
institutions, so the information spread abroad 
throughout China would not relate simply to edu- 
cational matters, but to industrial and commercial 



2i8 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

as well. It would be possible, through this method 
of coming in contact with influential Chinese, to 
recommend directly to them in response to their re- 
quests, American teachers, engineers, and other 
people whose services they might like to obtain. I 
mention this point especially because I know that 
the leading Chinese statesmen are anxious to get 
just the right kind of men from America and Eu- 
rope as assistants in all sorts of business and gov- 
ernmental enterprises, having had myself, during the 
last year, four inquiries from different Chinese gov- 
ernments for young men who would be willing to 
spend five or six years in the Chinese public service 
in responsible and influential positions. 

" In a word, the visit of such a commission would 
exert a manifold and far-reaching influence, ex- 
ceeding greatly in value any possible cost of the 
enterprise. It would have results in many unex- 
pected directions outrunning all our present antic- 
ipations, and showing new and surprising possibil- 
ities of usefulness in the fields of education, business, 
and statesmanship. The extension of such moral 
influence as this would, even in a purely material 
sense, mean a larger return for a given outlay than 
could be obtained in any other manner. Trade fol- 
lows moral and spiritual domination far more inev- 
itably than it follows the flag." 

If this wise and statesmanlike proposal of Presi- 
dent James has not thus far resulted in action, it 
must be due to inertia on the American side of the 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 219 

Pacific, and not to the probability of opposition in 
China. The matter should by no means be suffered 
to rest until something is accomplished. As soon 
as the importance of welcoming Chinese students to 
America under existing conditions was brought to 
the attention of the Overseers of Harvard Univer- 
sity they at once voted to extend through the Chi- 
nese Imperial Commissioners then in the country 
to the Chinese Government an invitation for ten 
Chinese students to attend that institution. The 
same step was soon after taken by Yale University ; 
and on behalf of Chinese women, to whom three 
scholarships were offered, by the trustees of Welles- 
ley College, an institution which the Imperial Com- 
missioners visited at the special command of the 
Empress Dowager, who had become greatly inter- 
ested in what she had heard of American education 
for women. When the immense influence which 
has been exerted in Japan by the comparatively 
small number of her daughters who have been edu- 
cated in America is remembered, the importance of 
this small beginning for her sister empire may be 
faintly forecast. But all these movements, and 
many others like them, are utterly inadequate to 
cope with the present opportunity and emergency. 
It is well known that after all public and private 
claims arising from the Boxer disturbances of 1900 
have been satisfied, there will eventually remain in 
the hands of the American Government a sum of 
perhaps $20,000,000 (gold), a part of the indem- 



220 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

nity of 450,000,000 taels of silver arranged by all 
the Powers in the peace protocol of 1901. 

Upon two previous occasions, once with China 
and once with Japan, the American Government has 
established a precedent (so far as appears unique 
among nations) of returning unexpended balances 
of indemnities. 

The suggestion is often made that this money 
should be treated in the same way as its predeces- 
sors. Many Americans, however, intimately ac- 
quainted with China's condition, are profoundly 
convinced that if such a sum were handed back to 
China without conditions, it would at once be applied 
to purposes which would distinctly endanger the 
peace of the world, and make more difficult and in- 
soluble a problem already taxing the ingenuity of 
the Occident to deal with. It is of course easy to 
say that if this money is ours we should keep it ; if 
it belongs to China, to China it should go. But is 
it not perfectly reasonable to claim, as many do 
claim, that this sum represents not merely replacing 
value of fixed capital destroyed, but that it should 
be considered as a punitive indemnity for a great 
criminal act of Chinese officials, and in reality of 
the Chinese Government, against the American Gov- 
ernment in the person of its Legation? We are 
under as much obligation to see that this money is 
so used as to make similar outbreaks in future more 
diMcult as we are to return it at all. Ought we not, 
acting upon the wise suggestion of President James, 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 221 

to propose to the Chinese Government to use this 
sum (which will fall due annually for a genera- 
tion to come), or at least a part of it, in educating 
Chinese students in the United States ? 

During the preceding hundred years there has 
been a mighty collision between the civilisation of 
the West and the civilsation of the East. We have 
had commerce, followed by war, and war succeeded 
by diplomacy. The Western nations have estab- 
lished Legations at Peking, and consulates at the 
ports, while the Chinese have been persuaded to 
establish Legations in Western lands and consulates 
in foreign ports to look after the interests of Chi- 
nese subjects. Thus times have vastly changed 
since 1858, when " one of the Chinese plenipoten- 
tiaries, in response to a suggestion that his Gov- 
ernment should appoint consuls abroad to look after 
the interests of the Emperor's subjects settled in 
foreign lands, said : " When the Emperor rules over 
so many millions, what does he care for a few waifs 
that have drifted away to a foreign land ? " It was 
stated that some of those in the United States were 
growing rich from the gold mines and that they 
might be worth looking after on that account. " The 
Emperor's wealth," he replied, *' is beyond compu- 
tation; why should he care for those of his sub- 
jects who have left their home, or for the sands 
they have scooped together?"^ It is not so long 
ago that diplomacy was counted upon to settle all 

6 Foster's "American Diplomacy in the Orient," pp. 278-9. 



222 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

the issues between the East and the West as soon 
as China should have been beguiled into the " sis- 
terhood of nations " ; but the ultimate outcome of 
this process, deftly mingled with perpetual Western 
aggression and outrage, was the Boxer movement, 
and the siege of the Legations in Peking. The cli- 
max of this " diplomacy " was exhibited in 1901, 
when the Powers found it difficult to agree upon 
anything; and when at last they did agree, the net 
result of their elaborate specifications (except only 
the indemnity) was, after a few years had elapsed, 
as nearly as possible nothing at all. The world 
is slowly and with difficulty becoming disabused 
of its obsession that commerce is in itself an ele- 
vating agency. On the contrary, when unregulated 
by conscience, it furnishes fire-water and fire-arms 
to savages, engages in the slave trade and the coolie 
traffic, and in the " red rubber " atrocities on the 
Congo, at which the civilised world is aghast, 
" Commerce, like the rainbow, bends toward the pot 
of gold." Neither is moral renovation to be expected 
from such industrial revolution as is taking place in 
Japan, and will within a few decades wholly trans- 
form China. Listen to "The Bitter Cry of the 
Children,'* and see how even in our own Christian 
land we are barely able (if indeed we are as yet able) 
to check the downward tendencies of unregulated 
industrialism which wrecks the lives of women and 
destroys more children and youth than an army 
of Minotaurs. A critic of our civilisation, writing 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 223 

under the guise of a Chinese, bitterly complains of 
the persistent attempts of the Occident to substitute 
for the old Chinese " moral order '* Western " eco- 
nomic chaos." There is much to be said for this 
contention, for it is as good as certain that when 
China shall have been quite drawn into the modern 
commercial and industrial maelstrom, while she will 
be financially richer, she will be morally poorer. 

Much light has come to China from many sources, 
unwilling as she has been to receive it. The for- 
eign-controlled Imperial Maritime Customs has 
been a standing object lesson in Occidental methods 
of honestly administering great public trusts, but 
the Chinese would be glad to be rid of the foreign 
element, when, without higher motives than rule at 
present, " Chaos and Old Night " would soon set 
in again. An able and intelligent foreign press, 
the large body of foreign residents in Chinese ports, 
and especially the Chinese students who have been 
educated abroad, have all had an important though 
widely different part in the gradual leavening of 
a small portion of China. Yet these have only 
touched the fringes of the Empire, or the banks of 
its chief river. But there has been in China another 
force incomparably more influential than all of these 
combined. It is the originally small, but always 
steadily growing body of Protestant missionaries,^ 

"^ Only Protestant missionaries are mentioned, for the 
reason that the methods and the objects of the Roman 
Catholic societies are altogether different in kind and in 
results. 



224 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

beginning a century ago with a single Englishman, 
and now numbering more than 3,800, from six dif- 
ferent countries of Europe, and from all quarters of 
the British Empire, the United States being (at the 
end of 1906) represented by 1,562 persons. These 
men and women instead of living beside the Chi- 
nese, as do residents of the ports, live among them 
in cities, towns, and hamlets in every Province of 
the Empire, speaking every dialect, going every- 
where, inquiring into everything, constantly meet- 
ing and mingling with all classes of Chinese, from 
officials in their yamens to coolies and beggars on 
the street. Much knowledge of China has, indeed, 
come to the outside world from other than mission- 
ary sources; but for many decades nearly all trust- 
worthy information of outside countries which 
filtered into the minds of the bulk of the Chinese 
people came through missionary channels. 

Upon the spiritual aspect of their work (the most 
important because fundamental) it is aside from our 
purpose to dwell further than to remark that uni- 
versal experience has shown that the introduction 
of Christianity into any land is the most powerful 
moral force in human history. 

The object and the result of these labours is not 
the making of isolated converts, but the introduc- 
tion of a new moral and spiritual climate — a very 
different matter. Before China could be trans- 
formed, it was absolutely necessary that a vast Chi- 
nese Wall of prejudice should be not only scaled, 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 225 

or tunnelled, but levelled to the ground. In spite 
of some inevitable crudities of method, and errors 
of judgment, this work has gone steadily forward, 
and a large — but incalculable — part of the changes 
in China are the direct or the indirect result of these 
forces. 

For more than ninety years Americans in China 
have been engaged (like their comrades from other 
lands) in exclusively altruistic labour. They have 
explored the Chinese language and literature, trans- 
lated the Bible, and prepared not merely Christian 
books, but others of general value and importance 
for the enlightenment of the Chinese people. For 
carrying on this work they have equipped nine 
presses, which issue annually 119,000,000 pages. 
American hospitals and dispensaries are scattered 
from one end of China to the other. One of the 
oldest and largest is carried on in the city of Can- 
ton, where foreign intercourse with China began, 
and where the late Dr. John G. Kerr, who gave 
more than fifty years of fruitful service in preparing 
medical literature and in training medical students 
had in some forms of surgical practice a world-wide 
reputation. It is at Canton, also, that American 
women doctors have opened the only Woman's Med- 
ical College in China, the precursor, it is to be 
hoped, of many successors for the training of Chi- 
nese women physicians, to alleviate the woes of the 
millions of Chinese women. 

It was at Canton that Dr. Peter Parker began 



22(i CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

as a missionary of the American Board a brilliant 
career, " opening China at the point of the lancet," 
and doing more than anyone of his time to dispel 
Chinese prejudice. He acted as Chinese Secretary 
at the negotiation of the first American treaty, be- 
ing subsequently himself appointed Minister. It 
was likewise to Canton that Dr. S. Wells Williams 
went out under the American Board as a printer, 
becoming one of the most variously learned men in 
China, numbering among his activities the editor- 
ship of " The Chinese Repository " ; the compilation 
of a dictionary of the Cantonese dialect ; the service 
of interpreter to Commodore Perry in negotiating 
the famous treaty which opened Japan to the world ; 
the position of perpetual secretary of the United 
States Legation — ^being charge nine different times ; 
the authorship of a great dictionary of the Chinese 
language, in its day the best extant, and of the 
most accurate and most comprehensive thesaurus of 
information about China, " The Middle Kingdom." 
It was to Canton that Dr. A. P. Happer gave more 
than fifty years of his life, leaving behind him as a 
monument the Canton Christian College. 

Dr. E. C. Bridgman was the earliest American 
missionary to reach China (1830) under the Amer- 
ican Board, where he found a British pioneer, Dr. 
Morrison, after twenty-three years still without 
a companion. Dr. Bridgman founded and for 
twenty years edited " The Chinese Repository," a 
magazine which did much to make China known to 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 227 

the outer world. Like Dr. Parker, he was appointed 
Chinese Secretary at the negotiation of the first 
American treaty. He removed to Shanghai in 
1847 to join a committee in the translation of the 
Bible. He was the first president of the China branch 
of the Royal Asiatic Society. His associate in trans- 
lation work was the Rev. M. S. Culbertson, who 
graduated at West Point with Halleck, Beauregard, 
and Sherman, and when he determined to go to 
China he held a commission as second lieutenant in 
the United States army. Dr. D. B. McCartee was 
another member of the Presbyterian Mission in 
Ningpo — a man of special gifts, who after twenty- 
eight years of work for China had the remarkable 
fortune to give as many more to Japan, where he was 
for some years Professor in the University of Tokio. 
Dr. John L. Nevius, who removed from Ningpo to 
Chefoo, was known to foreigners in general as the 
introducer into China of excellent American fruits; 
to the Chinese by numerous books in that lan- 
guage, and by his phenomenal country mission 
work ; and to missionary experts by his writings on 
" Methods of Mission Work " and " Demon Posses- 
sion in China." Dr. C. W. Mateer, of the same mis- 
sion, has given somewhat less than fifty years of his 
life to education in China, having published a group 
of mathematical and other text-books in Chinese ; an 
elaborate and compendious course of study for stu- 
dents of the Chinese language, and having devoted 
much attention to the revision of the New Testa- 



228 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

ment in mandarin. One of his associates in this 
work is Dr. Chauncey Goodrich, for more than 
forty years in China, a theological teacher, hymnol- 
ogist, and author of a Chinese syllabary. Another 
educator of distinction is Dr. D. Z. Sheffield, who 
has long been president of the College at T'ung 
Chou (near Peking), and is the author of a Uni- 
versal History, besides works in Theology, Church 
History, Political Economy, and Ethics. The late 
Dr. S. I. J. Schereschewsky was a very learned 
American Russian Lithuanian Jew, who did a 
unique work in translating, single-handed, the whole 
of the Old Testament into the Mandarin language, 
followed by the Book of Prayer. During the last 
twenty years of his life, although so paralysed as 
to be unable to speak clearly, or to write at all, he 
yet by means of a typewriter and a system oi ro- 
manisation of Chinese characters translated the 
whole Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek 
into the literary style of Chinese, the result being 
published by the American Bible Society in 1902. 
He revised his Mandarin Old Testament, prepared 
a reference Bible for the American Bible Society, 
and at the time of his death was engaged in the 
translation of the Apocrypha. In the case of 
these men, there are few examples in history of 
such perseverance under difficulties, apparently in- 
surmountable, crowned by such complete success. 

The octogenarian. Dr. W. A. P. Martin, still liv- 
ing in Peking (originally of the Presbyterian 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 229 

Board), was long at the head of the School of Lan- 
guages which furnished most of the translators and 
interpreters for the Chinese Government. At a 
later date he was named in " The Peking Gazette " 
as president of the Peking University, and given 
a high Chinese title. 

He is the author of many important works, both 
in Chinese and in English. Dr. Young J. Allen 
(nearly fifty years in China) was for many years 
at the head of the Anglo-Chinese College in Shang- 
hai, and has long been editor of " The Review of 
the Times," a Chinese monthly, which is literally 
a magazine of information, the largest single win- 
dow through which the Chinese have ever looked 
out upon the world. It enters very many of the 
yamens in China, and has long been, in its way, the 
most influential periodical in the Chinese Empire. 
Dr. Allen is also author of a compendious and de- 
tailed " History of the War with Japan," with a 
huge supplement giving the inside telegraphic history 
of the war, with copies of all the despatches back and 
forth, the latter being privately furnished by H. E. 
Li Hung-chang. The sale of these works has been 
enormous, and in the absence of a copyright law, 
they have been honoured by perpetual and almost 
universal piracy on the part of the Chinese. 

At the time of the projected reforms of 1898, 
the Emperor sent not only for all the back numbers 
of the " Review " from the beginning, but for copies 
of all the publications of the Useful Knowledge So- 



230 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

ciety, by which it was pubHshed. Dr. C. D. Tenney 
(once a missionary of the American Board) began 
on a small scale the education of Chinese youth, in- 
terested leading Chinese officials in the matter, from 
Li Hung-chang downward, and was the means of 
organising the Tientsin University, which he con- 
ducted until the Boxer year, after which he was 
placed at the head of the new Government Univer- 
sity at Tientsin, with the superintendency of all the 
schools in the metropolitan Province of Chihli, it 
being planned to make them the model for other 
Provinces. He is now in the United States super- 
vising the education of a party of more than forty 
Chinese students. Dr. Watson M. Hayes (American 
Presbyterian Mission) accepted the invitation of 
Yuan Shih-k*ai, then Governor of Shantung, to or- 
ganise the new Provincial University. The detailed 
course of study was submitted by the Governor 
in a memorial to the Throne during the exile of 
the Court at Singan fu, and was made by Imperial 
Decree the model to which all other Provincial 
Universities were to conform. Dr. Gilbert Reid 
of Shanghai, formerly of the American Presby- 
terian Mission, has laboured for many years to es- 
tablish an "International Institute" (educational), 
which shall be a medium for a better understanding 
of each other by Chinese and foreigners. The en- 
terprise is supported by a large Society, comprising 
many Chinese officials and merchants, as well as by 
subscribers in Great Britain and the United States. 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 231 

Last, but far from least, we place the name of a 
missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church — 
Frank D. Game well — ^whose fortification of the 
British Legation in Peking, during the siege, was 
declared by the British General Gaselee to be " be- 
yond all praise," and who was perhaps the only 
man among the many hundreds there imprisoned, 
the preservation of whose life was, humanly speak- 
ing, essential as a means of saving all the rest. 

It should not escape notice that more than two- 
thirds of those whose names have been specially 
mentioned were distinguished in connection with 
teaching. Education may, indeed, be said always 
to have been with Americans in China a specialty. 
The list of great teachers would not be complete 
without the addition of the pioneer of them all — 
Dr. S. R. Brown, who taught the Morrison School 
at Macao and Hongkong from 1839 ^^ 1846. 
Among Dr. Brown's pupils was a bright lad of 
an obscure and poor family, afterwards known to 
fame as Dr. Yung Wing. It was he who, as already 
mentioned, in 1872 and 1873, took large parties of 
Chinese students to be educated in the United States 
— a great stream flowing from a tiny crevice. Of 
the fourteen institutions claiming a college grade in 
China, twelve, in nearly every maritime Province 
and up the Yang-tzu, are American. The educa- 
tional Association of China is a body of practical 
teachers in the Empire, meeting triennially for the 
discussion of educational problems and for unity 



^32 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

of action. According to its latest report (1905), 
of the total British and American membership more 
than "jy per cent, was American. The only insti- 
tutions in China, of college grade, for Chinese 
women, are American. The total number of Amer- 
ican schools and colleges of all sorts is probably 
considerably in excess of one thousand. The influ- 
ence of such educational centres in an Oriental em- 
pire, until recently still in the Middle Ages, has 
been altogether out of proportion to the number of 
teachers. These institutions have been active dy- 
namos throwing out light and heat in all directions. 
The pupils have often become teachers in Govern- 
ment schools, passing on to others the impetus 
which they have themselves received. The most 
eminent Chinese officials have often been cordial in 
the expression of their appreciation of the benefits 
which they received from American efforts. On 
his visit to America the late Marquis Li Hung- 
chang once said to a delegation which waited upon 
him: "I fully appreciate the philanthropic objects 
which the missionary societies have in view. . . . 
The missionaries have not sought for pecuniary 
gains at the hands of our people. They have not 
been secret emissaries of diplomatic schemes. Their 
labours have no political significance, and, last but 
not least, they have not interfered with or usurped 
the rights of the territorial authorities. . . . 
You have started numerous educational establish- 
ments which have served as the best means to 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 233 

enable our countrymen to acquire a fair knowledge 
of the modern arts and sciences of the West. As 
for the material part of our constitution, your soci- 
eties have started hospitals and dispensaries to save 
not only the souls but also the bodies of our coun- 
trymen. I have also to add that in times of fam- 
ine in some of the Provinces you have done your 
best to the greatest number of sufferers to keep their 
bodies and souls together.'* 

At the dinner given in New York (February 2, 
1906) to the Imperial Commissioners already men- 
tioned, H. E. Tuan Fang observed, in replying 
to the extended address of Dr. Arthur J. Brown, 
among other things : " We take pleasure this even- 
ing in bearing testimony to the part taken by the 
American missionaries in promoting the progress of 
the Chinese people. They have borne the light of 
Western civilisation into every nook and corner of 
the Empire. They have rendered inestimable serv- 
ice to China by the laborious task of translating 
into the Chinese language religious and scientific 
works of the West. They help us to bring happi- 
ness and comfort to the poor and the suffering, by 
the establishment of hospitals and schools. The 
awakening of China, which now seems to be at hand, 
may be traced in no small measure to the work of 
the missionary. For this service you will find China 
not ungrateful." 

It is a matter of not a little psychological inter- 
est to see a sturdy old Confucianist, diplomat, and 



234 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-t)AY 

man of the world, like Li Hung-chang, and a wide- 
awake Manchu of the new era, like Tuan Fang, 
certify to the hard-headed business men of New 
York, the moral, the social, and the economic benefit 
of missionary work in China; especially as many 
of those who perhaps read the report of the 
speeches in the next morning's paper might not im- 
probably have been ready off-hand to express their 
matured conviction (i) that missionaries in China 
have accomplished nothing to speak of, and (2) that 
in doing so they incidentally brought on the Boxer 
uprising. " The sociological importance to China," 
says Dr. Sydney Gulick, "of free and pure Christian 
propaganda is completely ignored by the average 
student of Oriental affairs. But, beyond dispute it 
is, that no more potent though silent influence is 
exerted in that land for the removal of race-misun- 
derstandings and prejudices, and for the upbuilding 
of the era of good-will between the white man and 
the yellow man, than are exerted by Protestant mis- 
sions." " It is not improbable," remarks Benjamin 
Kidd, " that to the future observer, one of the most 
curious features of our time will appear to be the 
prevailing unconsciousness of the real nature of the 
issues in the midst of which we are living." And 
in this connection many readers will recall (as 
does Dr. A. J. Brown, from whose " New Forces 
in Old China" the quotation is taken) the mem- 
orable words of the historian Lecky : " No more 
did the statesmen and the philosophers of Rome un- 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 235 

derstand the character and issues of that greatest 
movement of all history, of which their literature 
takes so little notice. That the greatest religious 
change in the history of mankind should have taken 
place under the eyes of a brilliant galaxy of philoso- 
phers and historians v^ho were profoundly conscious 
of decomposition around them ; that all these writers 
should have utterly failed to predict the issue of 
the movement they were then observing; and that 
during the space of three centuries they should have 
treated as contemptible an agency which all men 
must now admit to have been, for good or evil, 
the most powerful moral lever that has ever been 
applied to the affairs of men, are facts well worthy 
of meditation in every period of religious transi- 
tion." The fact that some of our ablest American 
statesmen and men of affairs, like the late ex-Pres- 
ident Hayes, ex-President Cleveland, the late Presi- 
dent McKinley, the late Secretary John Hay, Presi- 
dent Roosevelt, and many more, gave their open 
and hearty support to the work of foreign missions 
is due to the fact that they recognise in them a 
sociological force which is unobtrusively but irre- 
sistibly working toward the introduction of a Chris- 
tian climate all over the earth.^ From this point 
of view the enterprise of Christian missions^ — often 
considered as an amiable fad — ^becomes of the high- 
est national and international importance. 

8 See on this subject Dr. James S. Dennis's "Christian 
Missions and Social Progress," especially volume iii., in 
extenso. 



236 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY. 

To quote the temperate language of Mr. F. T. 
Gates, Mr. Rockefeller's secretary, in urging him 
to give generously to foreign missions : " The sub- 
ject of foreign missions should command the inter- 
est of patriots and philanthropists, of men of all 
creeds and of no creed, of men of commerce, of 
manufactures, of finance, of the bankers, importers 
and exporters of our country, and of all who have 
the well-being of their own country at heart. In 
the long run, it will be found, I think, that the 
effect of the missionary enterprise of English-speak- 
ing peoples will be to bring them the peaceful con- 
quest of the world — not political dominion, but do- 
minion in commerce and manufactures, in literature, 
science, philosophy, art, refinement, morals, relig- 
ion, and in future generations will bring back return- 
ing tribute in all these departments of life and prog- 
ress quite beyond present estimation. Forgive me 
if I am in earnest in the matter. I have been brood- 
ing over this subject for years. These views as to 
the importance of missions spring from no sudden 
enthusiasm, but represent deliberate conviction, 
which has stood the test of every mood and of all 
my study, reading, reflection, and intercourse with 
men for a long time." " Such then," comments 
" The Outlook," " is in brief the view of mission- 
ary work held to-day by intelligent and well- 
informed men. Christian missions are seen to-day 
to be the most effective instruments for mediating 
between and bringing together fragments of the 
human race long isolated, radically different, and 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 237 

too often bitterly antagonistic. They are in a 
unique way humanity's clearing-house of ideas and 
ideals, of motives and movements." ^ To a similar 
purpose, although from a different point of view, 
was the address of the Hon. Wm. J. Bryan in Lon- 
don, July 4, 1905, after a wide tour of Oriental 
lands, in the course of which he said : " And now 
we come to the most important need of the Orient— 
a conception of life which recognises individual re- 
sponsibility to God, teaches the brotherhood of man, 
and measures greatness by the service rendered. 
The first establishes a rational relation between the 
creature and his Creator, the second lays the foun- 
dation for justice between man and his fellows, and 
the third furnishes an ambition large enough to fill 
each life with noble effort." " We do not remem- 
ber," observes the journal just quoted (perhaps 
more widely influential in America than any other), 
" ever to have seen a better definition of the function 
of Christian missions than this. To inspire men with 
a sense of their responsibility to God that they may 
be made wise and strong to fulfill their obligations to 
their fellowmen by the highest service of which they 
are capable, is not a bad summary of the duties of 
the Christian ministry both at home and abroad. 
The nation which is animated alike in domestic and 
foreign policy by this spirit is a Christian nation, 
though it may have neither a national creed nor a 
national church." ^^ 

» " The Outlook," September 9, 1905. 
10 "The Outlook," July 16, 1906. 



238 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 

Speaking of the flood of new books upon Ori- 
ental questions, the Hon. John W. Foster, in a re- 
cent magazine article, gives it as his opinion that 
" probably in no previous period of the history of 
the human race has there been awakened such con- 
centrated attention to one portion of the earth and 
its inhabitants." 

It is important to take long views and wide. We 
have been " long isolated " from the Oriental peo- 
ples, we are indeed " radically different," but we 
must on no account allow ourselves to drift into 
becoming " bitterly antagonistic." The qualities 
which the Chinese have developed most successfully, 
and in which they are strongest, are those which the 
world most needs, and for which in the new era 
upon which we are entering there will be the widest 
scope, and for which also there is sure to be the 
richest and most permanent reward. Those who 
are engaged in trying to comprehend these peoples 
and to make them comprehensible to others, are 
the intermediaries and the interpreters for the East 
and the West, and there are and can be no others. 

America and China! what are to be their future 
relations? — a matter possibly of quite as much im- 
portance to us as to China, for the Chinese have 
been fixtures where they are for four millenniums, 
and should our aged planet hold out as much longer, 
whatever other regions they may occupy, it is as 
certain as any future event can well be that the 
Chinese will then be where they are now. We, too, 



OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 239 

though in possession of our own continent less than 
a tenth as long as the Chinese, are confident that we 
hold a life-lease. Would it not be to our advan- 
tage if American push were to be reinforced by 
Chinese patience, American versatility by Chinese 
concentration, American energy by Chinese endur- 
ance ? 

Great as the changes appear in comparison with 
the past, the transformation of China has as yet 
scarcely begun, and will go on in a more or less 
accelerating ratio for long years to come. In it 
all, the moral and not the material element must be 
put first. This mighty renovation will mean much 
to all Western lands, but it may mean most to 
America. 

If we are wise, shall we not face all our duties 
and opportunities with earnest eagerness, — without 
prejudice, with courage, and with hope toward the 
setting sun,— with the motto: "AMERICA AS- 
SISTS THE EAST? 



THE END 



INDEX 



Abraham Sheikh, and his collateral (present day) kins- 
man in Syria, i6. 
Absolute monarchy, China far from being an, 6i. 

exclusion of Chinese enacted, i6i. 

Absorption (stealthy) of Chinese territory checked, 86. 
Adaptation, Chinese talent for, 70. 

Africa, a New, no. 

Age-long training of Chinese, 74. 

— — debt of Japan to China, 210. 

Agnostics, Chinese, 54. 

Agricultural reforms and arborlcultural development, 127. 

Alaska, importance of the United States purchase of, 21. 

Allen, Dr. Young J., 229. 

Alexander the Great, conquests of give impulse to over- 
land trade with China, 81. 

Altruistic labour of Americans in China, 225. 

America, the New, 19; attitude of towards the Chinese, 
161; deprecatory terms of, applied to foreign peoples, 
148; exclusion of Chinese from, 161. _ 

America's advantages and disadvantages in China,. 146; 
opportunities and responsibilities in China, 195; 
Oriental trade, a menace to, 167; treaties with 
China, honourable character of, 151; treatment of 
the black man and the red, 147, 148; flag, disappear- 
ance of from Chinese waters, 188; important 
achievements of, 207. 

American Asiatic Association, 201; annual dinner of, 201; 
citizens at mercy of Chinese laws and rulers, 93; 
courts, Chinese testimony rejected in, 164; official 
shuffling of responsibility, 176; violence towards 
Chinese (in the U. S.), 164; ships in Canton river, 
belligerent operations of, 88; manufacturing su- 
premacy of, 197. 

Americans (in Bismarck's phrase) said to have "a vast 
and varied ignorance " of anything and everything 
at a distance, 109. 

Amherst, Lord, English ambassador at Canton, 89. 

Anglo-Saxon, the rectilinearity of his speech, 68. 

of Asia, the Chinese, 70. 

241 



242 INDEX 

Anti-foreign wave in China to-day a manifestation of 
patriotism, 117. 

Arab, the, and Arabia, 16. 

Army and Navy of China characterised, 115; later im- 
provements in, 116. 

Armies of Chinese, victorious, 46. 

Arbitration, sentiment in favour of, 207. 

Arrow war, the, 104. 

Asia, the land of origins, 13; a realm of antiquities, 13. 

Asiatic characteristics, 15. 

Athletics and physical training developing, 133. 

Attila, of the Huns, the scourge of Europe, 34. 

Attitude of America towards the Chinese, 161. 

Austin's, Hon. O. P., "The Commercial Prize of the 
Orient " quoted, 81, 202. 

Awakening of China, profound significance of, 197. 

Awkward age, Chinese have no, 68. 

" Axiomatic China," 58. 

Bacillus Anti-Americanus, the, 172, 

" Backshish hunters," Mohammedan Arabs now merely, 
49. 

Bamboo tablets, the earliest Chinese books, 36 

Barbarian, Western, his footing in China, 91. 

Belligerent operations of British and American ships in 
Canton river, 88. 

Bibliography, Annals of Chinese, 43, 44. 

Bibliothecal catastrophes, 37. 

Board of Education and its examinations, 142; examples 
of the questions asked and the subjects sought to 
be expounded by, 143; themes set for essays, 143.^ 

Boycott, the, Chinese merchants wield the, 75, 206; anti- 
American, 173. 

Boxer massacre, the, 78; effect of on China, 171. 

Brass Dish, the, and the Iron Brush, 80. 

Bridgman, Dr. E. C, earliest missionary to China, 226. 

Brine and petroleum wells, 71. 

Brinkley, Capt. R, on China and Japan, 48, 80, 84, 86, 99. 

Britain, at opening of twentieth century, finds large part 
of the world in a transitional state, 109; her develop- 
ment in South Africa, India, and Egypt, no; her 
early dealings with China and the ensuing compli- 
cations, 94; her interest in the opium traffic, the 
*' lubricant " for a time in the national trade, 98. 

Brown, Dr. Arthur J., his " New Forces in Old China," 
168, 171, 200, 233, 234. 

■ Dr. S. R., pioneer Chinese teacher, 231. 

Bryan, Hon. Wm. J., address of in London, 237. 



INDEX 243 

Buddhism, great headway of in China, 39, 81. 

— — Taoism, and the arts, 44. 

Bunsen, Baron, his work in Egypt, 50. 

Bureau of Charities, Chinese, 125. 

Burlingame, Anson, U. S. minister to China, appointed 
envoy of Chinese government to the Treaty Powers, 
155; the emigration agreement in the treaty of 1868, 
156; death of at St. Petersburg, 155. 

Canals and waterways, 42. 

Canton, English complaint of Hoppo's exactions at, 92. 

Carnegie's " Triumphant Democracy," flatters the na- 
tional vanity, 192. 

Cathay, Marco Polo's visit to, 43; "A Cycle of Cathay" 
quoted, 189. 

Chamber of Commerce, at Canton, the iiew, 128. 

Chang Chih Tung, governor-general, 59; on the opium 
trade, in his book " China's Only Hope," where he 
urges to '' Cast out the Poison," 100; insuperable 
obstacles in the way of suppressing the trade, loi. 

Changes in intercommunication and transportation in 
China far-reaching, 123. 

Cheerful industry of the Chinese people, y6. 

Ch'en dynasty (A. D, 557-589), 35- 

Ch'i dynasty (A. D. 479-502), 35. 

Ch'ien Lung, emperor and man-of-letters, 45. 

Chin (Western) dynasty (A. D. 265-317), 35. 

(Eastern) dynasty (A. D. 317-420), 35. 

Ch'in dynasty (B. C. 255-206), 31. 

Ch'in Shih Huang, first emperor and unifier of China, SZ\ 
a reformer, ^2)'> dynasty of, ZZ'i destroys existing 
literature, 32; buries alive his scholar critics, ZZ- 

China, old, 28; legendary, 31; origin of the name, 31, 32; 
early socialistic statesmen of, 41; nationalisation of 
commerce in, 41; sages or holy men of, 50-52; his- 
tory of and its divisions into periods, ZZ) its early 
feudal states, 31; building and repair of the great 
wall of (1500 miles in length), a gigantic under- 
taking, 32; warfare of, with the Tartars of the North, 
34; Manchu Tartars seize the throne, 34; historic 
parallel between barbarian inundation of Rome and 
the invasion of China by her barbarian enemies, 
34; dynasties of, chronologically arranged, 35; Na- 
poleon of, 2>^\ consolidation of under Emperor 
Huang, 32; formative period of polity and consti- 
tution, Z7'y great work on the topography of, 45; 
victorious armies of, 46; family genealogies in, 58; 
honeycombed with secret societies, 62; immeasura- 



244 INDEX 

ble greatness of, 58; inherent democracy of, 63; 
lack of progress, 64; hard work a necessary condi- 
tion of human existence in, 65; early manufacture 
of paper in, 70; silk-weaving in, 70; farming in, 70; 
merchant class in, 66; land of ploughed in autumn, 
70; Roman Catholic missionaries the first to reach, 
43; foot-binding in, 44 and 134; invention of mari- 
ner's compass, 70; system of government in, 74; 
trade guilds in, 75; invention of printing art in, 39, 
70; survival of the fittest in, ^T, overland trade with, 
81; opening of English commerce with, 87; treaty 
of with Russia, 86; lawless raids of Dutch on coasts 
of, 84; Western barbarians, footing in soil of, 91; 
early lack of consuls in European intercourse with, 
94; opium trade of a greater evil than war, famine 
and pestilence, 100; nineteenth century foreigners in, 
autocratic, dictatorial, and openly contemptuous of 
rights of the people, loi; railways in operation in, 
and profits of, 1 19-122; anti-foreign wave a manifes- 
tation of patriotism in, 117; electric lighting now 
prevalent in, 118; Japan contrasted with, 114; army 
and navy of characterised and later improvements 
in noted, 115, 116; United States treaties with, 151, 
I55> 174; P9PPy plant now discouraged in, 135; in- 
tercommunication and transportation in far-reach- 
ing, 123; Japanisation of, 129; drastic decrees against 
present use of opium, 135; public sentiment now 
antagonistic to its use, 135; journalism and literature 
in, 136, 138; compulsory education now urged, 142; 
patronising character of President Tyler's state 
paper to Emperor of, 152; women and her subjec- 
tions in, 208; Protestant missionaries and their work 
in, 105; opening of at the point of the lancet, 226; 
disunity the curse of, 36; reverence for the past of, 
57; Brown's " New Forces in Old China," 168, 171, 
200; China on verge of revolution, 214; proposal to 
return unexpended portion of indemnity money, 
220; good work of Protestant missions in, 105, 223; 
acknowledgment of the moral, social, and economic 
benefit of missionary work in, 233, 

Chinatown, evils of in many large American cities, 159. 

Chinese classics, Legge's, 47, 

literature, Dr. Wylie's notes on, zi- 

labour, its effect on the demand for white labour, 

158; immigration of to the Pacific coast, 157. 

people, great qualities of, 50. 

the, a great race, 47. 

waters, anomalous condition of, at the close of eight- 

eenth century 90. 



INDEX 245 

Chinese Repository, the, 226. 

Chinese, real founder of empire, 32; dynasties, 35; early 
literature destroyed, 32; Muse of History, ss; polity 
and institutions of, formative period of the, 37; a 
great race, 47; agnostics, 54; great qualities of the 
people, so; race traits of, 57, 75-78; historic instinct 
of the, 58; symbols of thought of, 59; Lord Elgin's 
attitude towards, 102; Sir Henry Parkes' dealings 
with the, 102; the Chinese in Japan, 211; thousands 
of in other foreign countries, 215; punctiliously 
polite, 69; no right of legislation, 64; no right of 
self-taxation, 64; tieat-handedness of, 72; con- 
formity to conditions of the, 70; physical vitality 
of, 74; system of government among, 61, 74; mas- 
sacre of in Philippine Islands, 83; cheerful industry 
of the, 76; officials of and their nine ranks, 60; 
monarchical form of government, 61; right of re- 
bellion, 64; steady, sober, and intelligent as labour- 
ers, 67; Herbal of, 45; poetry, golden age of, 39; 
great lexicon of language, 45; interdict of in Dutch- 
Indian colonies, 86; waters, international breaches 
of decorum in, 88; anomalous conditions prevailing 
in waters of at close of eighteenth century, 90; com- 
mercial instincts of, 90; ablest monarchs of, 90; 
superiority of Manchus of, 91; American citizens 
at mercy of laws and rulers, 93; invaluable in do- 
mestic service, 174; indispensable in salmon-can- 
ning and fruit-raising, 174; postal system, 124; 
immigration of to America and the latter's enact- 
ments against it, 157, 158; San Francisco's hostility 
to, 166; American violence toward, 164; rejection 
of testimony of in American courts, 164, 165; at- 
titude of the United States toward " a menace to 
America's Oriental trade," 167; 5000 Chinese study- 
ing in Japan, 215; Americans the natural friends of 
the Chinese, 216; tuition of free in all school grades, 
132; dearth of teachers, 133; girl students a factor 
of prime import, 133. 

commercial instinct of, 90. 

a punctiliously polite people, 78. 

language, lexicon of, 45. 

in Japan, the, 215. 

officials, and their nine ranks, 60. 

foreign office (the Tsung Li Yamen), 64. 

Ching dynasty, Manchu (A. D. 1644 — ), 35. 

Chou dynasty, the (B. C. 1122-255), 35; its great sages, 36. 
Christians, Nestorian, a patron of the, 38. 
Chu Hsi, statesman of Sung dynasty, 40; influence of, 40. 
Classics, the, interpretations of, 40, 42. 



246 ^ INDEX 

Code of social order, 6i. 

" Co-hong," the famous Chinese intermediary, 92. 
Colquhoun's " Mastery of the Pacific," 200. 
Columbus, Christopher, his discovery of America, 82. 
Commerce, early Chinese, 80; overland trade with China, 

81; English trade with China opened, 87; of Empire, 

nationalisation of, 41. 
Commercial press in China (under Japanese influence), 

139- 
" Commercial Prize of the Orient," The, quoted, 202. 
Community, the supreme in Oriental civilisation, 16. 
Compulsory education urged, 142. 
Conceit, ineffable, of Chinese, 152. 
Conformity to conditions of Chinese, y2)- 
Confucius (B. C. 551-478), 51, 54, 55, 61; Memorabilia 

of, 59. 
Confucian system of thought, 53, 54, 55. 
Confucian temple in Peking, 36. 
Confucianism, its many great excellences, 55; its worship 

of ancestors, 54. 
Constitutional government, study of encouraged by two 

recent Imperial Commissioners, 140; reports on 

postponed, 141. 
Consuls, _ early lack of in European intercourse with 

China, 94. 
Contrivance for every emergency, A, a Chinese gift, yz- 
Coolies, Chinese, American attitude to traffic in, 189. 
Courtesy, Oriental talent for, 69; innate in many Chinese, 

69. 
Culbertson, Rev. M. S., translator of the Bible into 

Chinese, 227. 
Custom, Old-time, veneration for in China, 58, 59. 
" Cycle of Cathay," A, quoted, 189. 

Darroch, John, of Shanghai, on New Literature in China, 

.138, 139. 
" David Harum," and its variant on the Golden Rule, 106. 
Democracy, Inherent, of China, 63. 
Dennis, Dr. James S., his " Christian Missions " quoted, 

.235. 
Disunity, the ruin of Greece and the curse of China, z^. 
"Divine Discontent" of the Chinese, yy. 
Dutch, the, advent of in China and attack Portuguese and 

Spaniards, 84; international freebooters, 84; lawless 

raids of on China's coasts, 84. 

Indian C9lonies, interdict of Chinese in, 86. 

Dynasties, the' Chinese, 35; the seven most interesting 

to Occidentals, 36; the T'ang dynasty, 35. 



INDEX 247 

East India Company and the Opium trade, the, 95. 
Educational Commission to China, President James's 
memo on, 213, 218. 

Institutions in China, 129,^ 130; advance great in 

Province of Chihli, 129; institutions in operation 
under Governor-General, 129, 130; number of stu- 
dents, 130; scope of curriculum, 131. 

Museum, Chinese, 130. 

Egyptians, Old, and old Chinese compared, 49. 
Electric lighting prevalent now in China, 118. 
Elgin, Lord, his attitude towards the Chinese, loi, 102. 
Embassies to the capital of tributary Kingdoms and 

States, 38. 
Engineers, Chinese lack of competent, 123. 
English antagonised by the Portuguese on first coming 

to China, 86; her commerce with China opened, 87. 
Examination, Chinese old-style, abandoned, 128. 
Exclusion Act, the, applied to the Chinese and its effect 

on them, 206. 

Family genealogies in China, 58. 

Far East, the, and the New China, 108. 

Farming in China, 66. 

Fatalism, land where it reigns, 14. 

Fatalists, Chinese unconscious, 76. 

Filial piety, Chinese, 54, 171. 

Fixity of China, unalterable, 40. 

Five Constant Virtues, the, 53, 

Five Rulers, the great Chinese, 28. 

Florida, an early Spanish colony, 20. 

Foreign communities in China a law unto themselves, 92. 

Foreign office, Chinese (Tsung Li Yamen), the, 64. 

Foreign treaty, first between China and Russia, 86. 

Foreigners in China, many of them autocratic, dictatorial, 
and openly contemptuous of Chinese rights, loi. 

Foreigners in China, in 19th century, autocratic, dicta- 
torial, and openly contemptuous of the rights of 
the Chinese, loi. 

Foster, Hon. John W., quoted, 238. 

Foster's "American Diplomacy in the Orient," quoted, 
151, 221. 

Foot-binding in China, 44, 134. 

Formative period of Chinese polity and institutions, 37. 

Four Knowings, Hall of the, 56. 

Gambling and opium-smoking, common vices in China, 65. 
Gamewell, Rev. F. D., his labours and work during siege 
of Pekin, 231. 



248 INDEX 

Gates, F. T. (Mr. Rockefeller's secretary), quoted, 236. 

Genealogies, Chinese family, 58. 

Genghis Khan, the world-renowned Tartar, 42. 

Giles, Prof., his dictum on K'ang Hsi, 45. 

Girl students a factor of prime importance, 133; schools 

for girls and women, 133, 
Goodrich, Dr. Chauncey, theological teacher and hym- 

nologist, 228. 
Great Wall, the, of China, 32. 
" Guarding a Great City," McAdoo's, 160. 
Gulick, Dr. Sydney L., "The White Peril" quoted, 15, 

201, 234. 
Gunpowder, invention of attributed to the Chinese, 70. 
Gurkhas, fiery, forced into submission, 46. 

Hall of the Four Knowings, the, 56. 

Han, the, first national Chinese dynasty, 34, ^6, 37. 

Han Wen-Kung, the philosopher statesman, 39. 

Hanlin Academy, burning of, 44. 

Happer, Dr. A. P., of the Canton Christian College, 226. 

Hard work, a necessary condition of human existence in 

China, 65. 
Hart, Sir Robert, on Chinese qualities, 78, 102, 103. 
Harvard University's invitation to Chinese students, 219. 
Hawaiian Islands^ key and cross roads of the Pacific, 25. 

important strategic base, 24. 

Hawks, Rev. F. L., "a Sketch of Chinese History," 29. 

Hayes, Dr. Watson M., of American Presbyterian Mis- 
sion, 230. 

Herbal, Chinese, 45. 

Historic instinct of Chinese, 58. 

Holcombe's " Real Chinese Question," 102. 

Holy men, or Chinese sages, 50-52. 

Hongkong, Britain's acquirement of, 104. 

Honolulu, unique situation of, 25, 26. 

" Hoppo " of Canton, English complaint against the ex- 
actions of and its results, 92. 

Huns, the, under Attila, the scourge of Europe, 34. 

Immigration, Chinese, and American enactments against 
it, 158, 161. 

of Chinese to the Pacific Coast of the U. S., 157. 

Imperial Library, the, 43. 

Income tax imposed for construction of Public Works 

in China, 41. 
Indemnities, unexpended, utilising or returning them, 220. 
Industrial institutes and exhibits in chief Chinese cities, 

125, 126. 
Inland ports, opening of in China, 124. 



INDEX 249 

Intellectual toil, Chinese have a phenomenal talent for, 

66. 
Intercommunication and transportation in China, 123, 
International breaches of decorum in Chinese waters, 88 

• • usages disregarded by Britain in China, 97. 

Instruction of prisoners in Chinese jails, 125. 
Isthmian Canal, the, 26, 198, 203, 205. 

James, President (Univ. of 111.), on Educational Commis- 
sion to China, 213, 218. 

Japan, the New, and the Japanese, 112; contrasted with 
China, 114; her war with Russia, 116; her age-long 
debt to China, 210; Chinese in, 215; politeness of, 
69; patriotism of her people, 112. 

Japanese teachers employed in Chinese provincial col- 
leges, 128, 129. 

Japanisation of China, 129. 

Jefferson, Thomas, a President committed against extra- 
constitutiomal acts, 19. 

Jews in China now at point of extinction, 115. 

Journalism, a new, with widened thought, 136; secular 
press not anti-Christian, 137; fearless in its attack 
of abuses, 137; journals conducted by women, 138. 

K'ang Hsi, 2nd Emperor of Manchu dynasty, 44; brilliant 
and long reign of, 44; great patron of literature, 44. 

and Chien Lung, ablest Chinese monarchs, 45, 46. 

Kerr, Dr. John G., of Canton, 225. 

Kidd, Benjamin, quoted, 234. 

Knowledge, Western, barriers battered down, 144. 

Koxinga, drives the Dutch from Formosa, 85; ex-pirate, 
early English treaty with, 87. 

Kublai Khan, his conquests over Asia, 42. 

Labourer, Chinese, steady, sober and intelligent, (ij. 

Lacquer-making, ivory and wood-carving, Chinese ex- 
perts in, 70. 

Lake Mohonk conferences, our admirable, 148. 

Land in China ploughed in autumn, 70. 

Learning, the new, in China, 131. 

Legations at Peking, 221, 222. 

Legendary China (B. C. 2500-A. D. 209), 31, 50. 

Legge, Dr. James, his Chinese Classics, 47. 

Lexicon of the Chinese language, great, 45. 

Li Hung-chang, Marquis, 115, 168, 202, 232, 234. 

Lin, Commissioner, his attempt to kill the giant com- 
merce in opium, 95, 97. 

Liberty, Statue of, Enlightening the World, 206. 

Literary activity during Ming era, 43. 



250 INDEX 

Literature, Chinese, successful patron of,, 45; the new de- 
velopment of, 40, 138; new publications, 138; agency 
of the Commercial Press, 139; vast range of modern 
publications, 139; translation of Occidental stand- 
ard works, 140; early Chinese, destroyed by Em- 
peror Huang, 32; repeal of the latter's edict against, 

Little, Archibald, his work on "The Far East," quoted, 

51. 
Little, Mrs. Archibald, her efforts to abolish foot-binding 

of Chinese girls, 134. 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, contempt for amenities 

of international intercourse at, 170. 

Macao, Portuguese occupation of, 83; deliminated from 

mainland, 83. 
Macartney, Lord, spectacular English embassy of, 89. 
Mahan, Capt, quoted, 23, 24. 

Malacca, Portuguese arrival at, and at Canton, 82. 
Manchu dynasty, second emperor of, 44. 
Manchus, superiority of to the Chinese, 91; their heritage 

of China, 90. 
Mandarins, obstructive ex-officio, 64. 
Manila, brought near to Washington by cable, 26. 
Manual training schools, Chinese, 126. 
Manufacturing of various kinds in operation liow in 

China, 126. 

beginning now to appear, 126. 

Marco Polo, his memorable visit to Cathay, 43. 
Mariner's compass, invention of in China, 70. 
Martin, Rev. Dr. W. A. P., his " A Cycle of Cathay," 189. 
Mateer, Dr. C. W., fifty years' educational work in China, 

227. 
McAdoo, Police Commissioner, on American municipal 

police problems, 159; his work " Guarding a Great 

City," 160. 
McCartee, Dr. D. B., his long work at Ningpo and Tokio, 

227. 
Meado\ys, T. T., on the Chinese and their rebellions, 48; 

his meditations while seated on the Great Pyramid, 

48; on fundamental tenets of Confucian thought, 

52- . . 
Memorabilia of Confucius, The, 59. 
Memory, cultivated in China to an unexampled extent, 

74. 

Men of Tang, 38. 

Mencius, the greatest of Chinese sages, 52; his last rest- 
ing-place, 55. 

Mental effort, Chinese high regard for, 59. 



INDEX 251 

Merchant class in China, the, 66. 

• Marine, American, lack of, a handicap in the Far 

East, 183. 
Mexico, unwarranted American aggression upon, 20. 
Middle Ages, the, Chinese still or lately living in, 75. 
Military chieftains, early Chinese, 31. 
Militia Enrollment Act, Chinese, 41. 
Miner, Luella, her " Two Heroes of Cathay," 168. 
Ming Emperor, Yung Le, 43. 
Mings, their dynasty and era, 43, 87. 
Mirror of History, from Chou dynasty downward, 40. 
Missionaries, Protestant, and their good work in China, 

105, 223, 224. 

Roman Catholic, the first to reach China, 43. 

Mississippi River, right to navigate freely, 19. 
Mohammed, flight of, 39. 

Mohammedan Arabs, mere " backshish hunters " now, 49. 

India powerfully influenced by unrest of Egypt, 112. 

Monarchical form of Chinese government, 61. 

Mongol rule, short-lived, 43; dynasty, 35. 

Monroe Doctrine, the, 23. 

Muse of History, the Chinese, S3- 



Nanking treaty of 1842, the, iqi. 

Napier, Lord, speaks of a Chinese Governor-General as 
"a presumptuous savage," 94. 

Napoleon of China, the, 32. 

National frontage on the Pacific, American, 204. 

Nationalisation of Chinese commerce, 41. 

Nature, intellectual and moral, of the Chinese run in 
cast-iron moulds, 40. 

Nature, powers of, worshipped in China, 54. 

Navigation of Chinese inland waters recently greatly 
extended, 123. 

Navy and Army of Chinese characterised, 115; later im- 
provements in, 116. 

Neat-handedness of the Chinese, 72. 

Nerchinsk treaty with Russia, the, 86. 

Nestorian Christians, a patron of in China, 38. 

Nevius, Dr. John L., his book on " Methods of Mission 
Work," 227. 

New America, The, 10. 

New Learning, the, desire for has reached China's in- 
terior, 131. 

"New York Independent" quoted, 185. 

" New York Observer '^ quoted, 193. 

Ningpo, early factories and trading establishments at, 
82. 



252 INDEX 

Occident, the, and the Orient, 13. 

Occidentals, the seven Chinese dynasties most interest- 
ing to, 30. 

Official shuffling of American responsibility, 176. 

Officials, Chinese, and their nine ranks, 60. 

Old China, 28. 

Old-time custom, Chinese veneration for, 58, 59. 

Opening China at the point of the lancet, 226; opening 
of inland ports (Chinese), 124. 

Opium, illicit sales of the deadly drug, 99; greater evil 
than war, famine, and pestilence, 100; opium-smok- 
ing and gambling, 65; trade in, 94, 135; smuggling 
of, a factor in bringing on w^ar with England, 98, 
99; use of, 100; drastic decree against, 135; strong 
Chinese public sentiment now antagonising its use. 

Opportunities and responsibilities of America in China, 

195. 
Orient, the, great changes and progress in, 18, 202-204. 

a large importer of cotton and cotton goods, 203. 

Oriental talent for courtesy, the, 69. 

" Outlook," The, quoted, 167, 236-238. 

Outrages against the Chinese in America, 176. 

Overthrow of Russia's land and naval forces by Japan 

(1904-05), 116. 

Pacific, the, to be the centre of world's commerce, wealth 
and power, 198. 

Panama Canal, influence of Its position, 23, 26, 198; see 
Isthmian Canal.^ 

Pango Pango, ceded in 1872 to the United States, 23. 

Paper, early manufacture of in China, zi- 

Parker, Dr. Peter, missionary of the American Board at 
Canton, 225. 

Parkes, Sir Harry, 102; his attitude in dealings with the 
Chinese, 102.^ 

Patriarchs, the earliest rulers in China, 31. 

Patriotism in China manifested by the anti-foreign wave 
agitation, 117. 

Peking, the siege of, 44. 

Philippine Islands, seized by the Spaniards, 83; acquisi- 
^ tion of by the United States, 26. 

Physical training now a part of the educational curricu- 
lum in China, 132. 

vitality of the Chinese the wonder of the world, 

74. 
Piano factory in Shanghai, 127. 
Pi Kan, killed to see if his heart had "seven openings," 

57. 



INDEX 253 

Poetry, Chinese, the T'ang period the golden era of, 39. 

Poppy plant, cultivation of now encouraged, 135. 

Portuguese, the, reach Malacca and Canton, 82; their fac- 
tories at Ningpo, 82; their expulsion, 83. 

Postal system in China now improved and extended, 
124; number of ojEfices and of articles handled, 124. 

Pott, Rev. F. L. Hawks, his " Sketch of Chinese His- 
tory," 29. 

Primary schools in Chinese Provinces, 131. 

Printing, art of, invented in and early resort to in China, 
70. 

Prisoners in Chinese jails, instruction of, 125. 

Progress in China, lack of, 64. ^ 

Protestant missionaries and their good work in China, 
105, 223, 224. 

Putnam-Weale's " The Re-Shaping of the Far East," 182, 
187. 

Race-traits, Chinese, 57, 75-78. 

Raids, lawless, of the Dutch on Chinese coasts, 84. 

Railways in operation in China, 1 19-122; profits of, 120; 

breach of faith manifested by constructors on first 

introduction of, 118. 
Rebellion, Chinese right of, 64. 
Reciprocal tariffs, proposals for, 177. 
Red-skins, American prevalent contempt for the, 148. 
Reid, Dr. Gilbert, his educational work at Shanghai, 230. 
Reid, Dr. Gilbert, of American Presbyterian Mission, 

230. 
Religions of Mankind, land in which all have originated, 

13- 

" Re-Shaping of the Far East," The, quoted, 182, 187. 

Responsibility, American official shuffling of, 176. 

Reverence, Chinese, for law> symbols of, and of govern- 
ment, 61. 

Reverence for the past in China, 57. 

for parents and authorities, 55. 

Roosevelt, President, his assertion that " Good manners 
should be an international, not less than an indi- 
^ vidual, attribute," 177, 178. 

Russia and her war with Japan, 116. 

Russo-Japanese War, reflex effect of the great, no. 

Sages or Holy Men of China, 50-52. 
Sakyamuni (or Saddartha), honour paid to, 39. 
Salmon-canning and fruit-raising, Chinese useful in, 174. 
San Francisco's hostility to Chinese immigration, 159. 
Scholar, Chinese, fatiguing intellectual labour of, 67. 



254 INDEX 

Scholars, the critics of Emperor Huang's acts, buried 

alive, 32, 33. 
Scholarship, Chinese, encouraged, 134. 
Schools for women and girls in China, development of, 

133. 
Secret societies, Chma honeycombed with, 62. 
Seward, Wm. H., most prescient American statesman, 21. 
Sheffield, Dr. D. Z., President of College at T'ung Chou, 

228. 
Shen Tsung era, 41. 

Shuffling (American official) of responsibility, 176. 
Silk, the spinning and weaving of, in China, 70. 
Socialistic statesmen of China, early, 41, 
Spanish seizure of the Philippines, the, 83; indiscriminate 

massacre of Chinese on, 83. 
Speer's " The Oldest and the Newest Empire," 166, 209. 
Spoils system in the United States in appointments of 

foreign ministers and consuls, 181, 182. 
Squeeze, the, Chinese officials resort to, 180. 
Ssu-Ma Kuang, his " Mirror of History," 40. 
State advances for the cultivation of the soil, 41. 
Stead, Alfred, his work on " Great Japan," 114. 
Stone drums, ten, in Confucian temple, Peking, 36. 
Strong, Dr. Josiah, quoted, 25; his "Expansion under 

New World Conditions," 196. 
Survival of the fittest in China, 77. 
Symbols of thought, Chinese, 59. 
System of government, Chinese, 74. 

Tablets, bamboo, the earliest Chinese books, 36. 

T'ai Tsung, second T'ang Emperor, 38. 

Talent, worship of, in China, 78. 

T'ang, men of, 38. 

T'ang, the, golden age of Chinese poetry, 39. 

Taotai Wang Kai-Ka, on " A Menace to America's Ori- 
ental Trade," 167. 

Tariffs, reciprocal, Oscar Straus's proposals of, 177. 

Tartar cue, adoption of, 44, 45. 

Tartars of the North, China's warfare with, 34. 

, Manchu, seize the Chinese throne, 34. 

Teachers, dearth of, and much of teaching inadequate, 
133. 

Telegraph and telephone systems in China, 118. 

Tenney, Dr. C. D., his education of Chinese youth, 230. 

Text-books and what they inculcate, 132. 

Themes set for essays by Chinese Board of Education, 

143. 
Tientsin treaty between the U. S, and China, the, 155. 
Tokio's regulated vice, 113. 



INDEX 255 

Topography of China, great work on, 45. 

Townsend, Meredith, his essays on " Asia and Europe," 
16. 

Trade-Guilds, Chinese, 75. 

Trader, Chinese, an expert, "^2, 

Training, age-long of Chinese, 74. 

Treaties (United States) with China, 155, 174, 175; hon- 
ourable character of, 151. 

Treatment of the Chinese in the U. S. bad, 162-166. 

Tsushima Straits, decisive victory of Japan in the, 86. 

Tuan Fang, his testimony in regard to missionary work, 

234- 
Tuition, Chinese, free in all school grades, 132. 
Turk, "the unspeakable," iii. 
Turkey, a New, iii. 
Tyler, President, patronising character of his State paper 

to an Emperor of China, 152. 

United States Court for China, establishment of, 191. 

and China coming together, 213. 

career of, one of masterful, irresistible expansion, 21. 

treaties with China, 151, 155, 174-^' 

Verbeck, Dr. Guido, a factor in bringing about religious 

liberty in Japan, 208. 
Violence (American) towards the Chinese in the U. S., 

165. 
Virtues, the Five Constant, 53. 

Wall, the Great, of China, 32. 

Wang An-shih, stateman of Sung dynasty, 41, 42. 

Wang Hsia treaty, 154. 

War, the Arrow, 104. 

Washington, George, effect of a study of his life upon 

Orientals, 209. 
Wei Hui fu, Chinese city of, 57, 103. 
Wen Wang, the Chinese Duke, 30. 
Wellesley College, offer of three scholarships to Chinese 

women, 219. 
Western barbarian's footing on Chinese soil, 91. 
' knowledge, barriers of burned down, 144. 

learning introduced and abolition of the old-style 

examination, 128. 

Powers and China never understood each other, 

lOI. 

" White Peril," The, quoted, 201. 
White wax, the, and its industry, 71. 
Wiffley, Judge L. R., of U. S. Court for China, good work 
of, 191. 



256 INDEX 

Williams, Dr. S. Wells, editor of "The Chinese Reposi- 
tory," 226. 

Williams, Dr., on the great T'ang dynasty, 38. 

Woman in China and her subjections, 208. 

" Woman's Daily Journal," of Peking, the, 138. 

Woman's Medical College, Canton, 225. 

Woodbridge, Dr., of Shanghai, states that native secular 

Work, a condition of human existence in China, 65. 

Wylie, Dr., his " Notes on Chinese Literature," ^"j. 
press of China is not anti-Christian, 136. 

Yale University, invitation of to Chinese students, 219. 
Yang Chen, Governor, 56. 
Yao and Shun, perfect Chinese rulers, 29, 50. 
Yuan Shih-K'ai, Governor-General and soldier, 116. 
Yung Le, second Ming Emperor, 43. 
Yung Wing, Dr., his prize for English composition, 74. 
Yu, the Great, founder of the Hsia dynasty (2205 B. C), 
30. 



AUG 8 my 



